Throughput and radio resource utilization for user equipment having multiple subscriber identity modules

ABSTRACT

A user equipment (UE) includes first and second subscriber identity modules (SIMs), possibly subscribed to different carriers. When the first SIM is in a connected state and the second SIM is in an idle state, the UE may need to periodically tune away a radio from a first frequency used for communication under the first SIM to a second frequency used for idle mode activity under the second SIM. The UE may provide to the network of the first SIM the second SIMs traffic activity pattern and/or serving frequency so that the network may provide coordinated configuration and/or scheduling for the UE device, e.g., in order to make the action of tuning away (and tuning back) the radio more efficient and/or to decrease the network impact of such radio tune aways (e.g., to decrease wasted uplink scheduling and wasted downlink transmissions for the first SIM).

PRIORITY CLAIM INFORMATION

This application claims the benefit of priority to Chinese PatentApplication No. 201910626914.1, filed Jul. 12, 2019, titled “ImprovedThroughput and Radio Resource Utilization for User Equipment HavingMultiple Subscriber Identity Modules”, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety as though fully and completely set forthherein.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of wireless communication,and more particularly, to mechanisms capable of increasing thethroughput and/or improving radio resource utilization for userequipment (UE) devices having a plurality of subscriber identity modulesand for networks that communicate with such UE devices.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Wireless communication systems are rapidly growing in usage. Further,wireless communication technology has evolved from voice-onlycommunications to also include the transmission of data, such asInternet and multimedia content. To enable a wireless device to access awireless communication network (e.g., a cellular telecommunicationnetwork) according to at least some wireless communication technologiesand standards, a user may subscribe to a service provider (a “carrier”),who in turn may provide such services to the user, e.g., via a wirelesscommunication network which they operate. Such subscribers in a wirelesscommunication network are typically assigned subscriber identityinformation, which may for example be stored in a subscriber identitymodule (SIM) in the subscriber's wireless device. For example, manywireless devices may be provided with a slot for a removable subscriberidentity module (SIM) card. Providing such a slot may enable users toselect and/or change their subscriber identity independently from thewireless device, as the user may be able to switch out their current SIMcard for a different SIM card at any given time, as desired. Morerecently, UE devices may come equipped with an eSIM (i.e., an electronicSIM, also known as an embedded SIM), wherein an embedded memory in theUE stores subscriber identity information for the user. As used herein,the term “subscriber identity module” includes within its scope ofmeaning the possibility that the subscriber identity module may be aneSIM or a removable SIM, unless otherwise specified.

Many UE devices today are being designed as dual SIM or multi-SIMdevices, where the UE is capable of storing two or more sets ofsubscriber identity information for the user. (As used herein, the term“multi-SIM device” means a device including more than one SIM.) Thisenables the UE to, for example, store first subscriber identityinformation for a user's home telephone number and also store secondsubscriber identity information for the user's business telephonenumber. Dual SIM or multi SIM UE devices have been especially popular inmore recently developing economies such as China.

One type of dual SIM UE is referred to as Dual SIM Dual Active (DSDA). ADSDA UE is capable of using two SIMs and two radios, so as to maintaintwo active sets of data communication simultaneously. For example, theUE may be conducting a voice call using one SIM while performing datacommunication (e.g., Internet browsing) on the second SIM.

Another type of dual SIM UE may be referred to as Dual SIM Dual Standby(DSDS), where only one SIM may be connected at any given time. Thus,when the UE is utilizing one SIM, e.g., for a voice call, the other SIMwill be idle.

As discussed above, a UE may include two or more SIMs, to enable the UEto communicate under two or more corresponding wireless servicesubscriptions. Different SIMs may be registered to different carriers orto the same carrier. Different SIMs in a UE may be in differentcommunication states. For example, a first SIM may be in a connectedstate while a second SIM may be in an idle state. The first SIM willrequire use of one or more RF chains to transmit and/or receive datato/from one or more base stations, e.g., two base stations in the case adual connectivity scenario. The second SIM (in the idle state) willrequire use of at least one RF chain to monitor paging opportunities (orpaging occasions).

In the case where the first and second SIMs are registered to differentcarriers, an RF chain of the UE may be subjected to periodic switchingbetween a first frequency that supports data transfers associated withthe connected state of the first SIM and a second frequency thatsupports page monitoring for the idle state of the second SIM.(Different carriers typically use different frequencies.) Thus, the UEwill not be able to take advantage of any uplink grants for the firstSIM during those periods of time when the RF chain is tuned away to thesecond frequency. Similarly, any downlink data transmitted by thenetwork of the first SIM during those periods of time will be ignoredsince the first SIM doesn't have control of the RF chain.

Even in the case where the first and second SIM are registered to thesame carrier, and thus, the same frequency may be used to support boththe first SIM's connected mode data transfer and the second SIM's idlestate page monitoring, precious time is consumed when the UE switchesits attention from connected-state data transfers to page monitoring,and vice versa.

Therefore, there exists a fundamental need for mechanisms capable ofimproving the throughput and/or performance of user equipment devicesthat include more than one SIM, and of the networks that communicatewith such user equipment devices.

SUMMARY

In one set of embodiments, a network node in a first wireless networkmay include: an interface to one or more base stations of the firstwireless network; and a processing element operatively coupled to theinterface. The processing element may be configured to receive, via theinterface, an indication that a user equipment (UE) device has at leasta first subscriber identity module (SIM) and a second SIM, where thefirst wireless network is associated with the first SIM. The processingelement may be further configured to receive, via the interface, aserving frequency of a second wireless network associated with thesecond SIM, where the second wireless network is different from thefirst wireless network.

The processing element may be further configured to select a servingfrequency of the first wireless network for use by the UE device basedat least in part on the serving frequency of the second wirelessnetwork. The serving frequency of the first wireless network may beselected from a set of available frequencies of the first wirelessnetwork in order to increase a re-tune efficiency of radio hardware inthe UE device.

The processing element may be further configured to transmit, via theinterface, a reconfiguration message to the UE device, where thereconfiguration message includes the selected serving frequency of thefirst wireless network. The reconfiguration message may include aninstruction to tune the radio hardware to the selected serving frequencyfor a connected-state data transfer of the first SIM.

In one set of embodiments, a wireless user equipment (UE) device mayinclude: a radio subsystem for performing wireless communication; aprocessing element operatively coupled to the radio subsystem; and aplurality of subscriber identity modules (SIMs). Each of the subscriberidentity modules may support access to a corresponding wireless network.The processing element may be configured to: receive a reconfigurationmessage from a first wireless network corresponding to a first of theSIMs; and in response to receiving the reconfiguration message,reconfigure a serving cell frequency for a data connection of the firstSIM with the first wireless network, to decrease or eliminate frequencyre-tuning events on an RF chain that supports both the data connectionof the first SIM and monitoring of pages of a second wireless networkassociated with a second of the SIMs.

In one set of embodiments, a wireless user equipment (UE) device mayinclude: a radio subsystem for performing wireless communication; aprocessing element operatively coupled to the radio subsystem; and aplurality of subscriber identity modules (SIMs). Each of the subscriberidentity modules may support access to a corresponding wireless network.A first of the SIMs is associated with a first wireless network, and asecond of the SIMs is associated with a second wireless network,different from the first wireless network. The processing element may beconfigured to receive a configuration message from the first wirelessnetwork, where the configuration message includes an indication of adenial probability threshold. In response to receiving the configurationmessage, the processing element may control a percentage of time an RFchain of the radio subsystem is tuned away from a first frequency,corresponding to a connection with the first wireless network, to asecond frequency of the second wireless network. The action ofcontrolling the time percentage may be based on the denial probabilitythreshold.

In one set of embodiments, a wireless user equipment (UE) device mayinclude: a radio subsystem for performing wireless communication; aprocessing element operatively coupled to the radio subsystem; and aplurality of subscriber identity modules (SIMs). Each of the subscriberidentity modules may support access to a corresponding wireless network,where the SIMs include a first SIM and a second SIM. The processingelement may be configured to select at least one of a first RF chain anda second RF chain of the radio subsystem that is to be subjected to idlemode activity for the second SIM during a dual connectivity (DC) stateof the first SIM. The processing element may be further configured todirect the radio subsystem to transmit a selection indicator to a firstwireless network associated with the first SIM. The selection indicatormay indicate a selection of at least one of a master cell group (MCG)and a secondary cell group (SCG) associated with the dual connectivitystate of the first SIM. The selection indicated by the selectionindicator may be determined based on said selecting at least one of thefirst RF chain and the second RF chain.

In one set of embodiments, a network node in a wireless network mayinclude: an interface configured to communicate with a base station ofthe wireless network; a processing element operatively coupled to theinterface. The processing element may be configured to: create a datarecord for a user equipment (UE) device having a plurality of subscriberidentity modules (SIMs), where the data record is linked to first SIMinformation and second SIM information of UE device. The first SIMinformation corresponds to a first SIM of the UE device, and the secondSIM information corresponds to a second SIM of the UE device. Inresponse to establishing a first call to or from a first mobile numberassociated with the first SIM information, the processing element mayset the data record to a busy state. In response to receiving, while thedata record is in the busy state, a second call that targets a secondmobile number associated with the second SIM information, the processingelement may refrain from paging the second mobile number at least for aperiod of time.

In one set of embodiments, a wireless user equipment (UE) device mayinclude: a radio subsystem for performing wireless communication; aprocessing element operatively coupled to the radio subsystem; and aplurality of subscriber identity modules (SIMs). Each of the subscriberidentity modules supports access to a corresponding wireless network.Furthermore, the processing element may be configured to: in response todetermining that a first of the SIMs is entering or has entered aconnected state and that a second of the SIMs is entering or has enteredan idle state, direct the radio subsystem to transmit page schedulinginformation to the wireless network corresponding to the first SIM,wherein the page scheduling information indicates a periodic sequence oftemporal intervals at least for monitoring pages from the wirelessnetwork corresponding to the second SIM; and during the connected stateof the first SIM and the idle state of the second SIM, control an RFchain of the radio subsystem to support a data transfer process for thefirst SIM and page monitoring for the second SIM, wherein the pagemonitoring is performed only during the temporal intervals of theperiodic sequence, wherein the data transfer process has either anuplink direction or a downlink direction, and occurs only outside thetemporal intervals of the periodic sequence.

In another set of embodiments, a wireless base station of a firstwireless network may include: a radio subsystem for performing wirelesscommunication; a processing element operatively coupled to the radiosubsystem. The processing element may be configured to: receive pagescheduling information from a user equipment (UE) device, wherein thepage scheduling information indicates a periodic sequence of temporalintervals associated with paging opportunities (or paging occasions) ofa second wireless network different from the first wireless network; andin response to receiving the page scheduling information, control an RFchain of the radio subsystem to support a data transfer processassociated with the UE device, wherein the data transfer process haseither an uplink direction or a downlink direction, wherein datatransfers of the data transfer process are scheduled only outside theperiodic sequence of temporal intervals.

Embodiments of the disclosure may thus be directed to methods forimproving throughput and/or radio resource utilization for multi-SIM UEdevices, to a UE device configured to implement such a method, and/or toa non-transitory computer accessible memory medium storing programinstructions executable by a processor to implement such a method. TheUE device may include a radio (e.g., including one or more antennasand/or other radio components) for performing wireless communication.The UE device may also include a processing element configured toimplement part or all of the method (e.g., by executing programinstructions). The UE device may further include one or more userinterface elements, such as a display. In addition, the UE device mayinclude a non-transitory computer accessible memory medium, which maystore program instructions executable by the UE.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the present subject matter can be obtainedwhen the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment isconsidered in conjunction with the following drawings.

FIGS. 1-2 illustrate examples of wireless communication systems,according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a base station in communication with auser equipment device, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a block diagram of a user equipmentdevice, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a block diagram of a base station,according to some embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates a user equipment 600 according to one set ofembodiments, where the user equipment 600 include a plurality ofsubscriber identity modules (SIMs), according to some embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates a base station 700 according to some embodiments. Thebase station 700 may be used to communicate with user equipment 600 ofFIG. 6.

FIG. 8A illustrates one embodiment of a default transfer 810 for a firstsubscriber identity module (SIM) of a user equipment device, a series ofpaging occasions 815 for a second SIM of the user equipment device, anda transfer 820 for the first SIM, with a suspension schedule, accordingto some embodiments.

FIG. 8B illustrates one embodiment of a method for informing a carriernetwork, associated with a first SIM, of a tune-away schedule (or apaging schedule) of a second SIM, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 8C illustrates one embodiment of a method 880 for reducing pagemonitoring impact to connected mode performance of a UE device havingmore than one SIM, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates one embodiment of a UE device 900 configured toselect one of a master cell group (MCG) or a secondary cell group (SCG)to be subjected to paging related tune-away events, according to someembodiments.

FIG. 10 illustrates one embodiment of a UE device 1000 configured toperform periodic tuning away of RF chains associated with both a mastercell group and a secondary cell group, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 11 illustrates one embodiment of a network node 1100, which may beused to improve the scheduling performance of a wireless network thatprovides dual connectivity to a UE device having more than one SIM,according to some embodiments.

FIG. 12 illustrates one embodiment of a node network 1200, which may beused to reduce the waste of paging resources for UE devices having twoor more SIMs, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 13 illustrates one embodiment of a method for reconfiguring amulti-SIM UE device to increase radio re-tune efficiency, especiallywhen a connected mode SIM and an idle mode SIM are assigned to the sameRF chain of the UE device, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 14 illustrates one embodiment of a method for operating a UEdevice, to decrease or eliminate radio re-tuning events, especially whenan RF chain of the UE device is used to service both a connected modeSIM and an idle mode SIM of the UE device, according to someembodiments.

FIG. 15A illustrates one embodiment of a method for operating a UEdevice so that the percentage of time that an RF chain of the UE deviceis used to service an idle mode SIM is limited, according to someembodiments.

FIG. 15B illustrates one embodiment of a method that enables a multi-SIMUE device to autonomously deny transmissions of a connected mode SIM,but with limited denial probability, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 16 illustrates one embodiment of a method for operating a UE devicethat enables a wireless network to increase scheduling efficiency when afirst SIM of the UE device is in a connected mode and a second SIM ofthe UE device is in an idle mode, especially in the context of a dualconnectivity connection, according to some embodiments.

FIG. 17 illustrates one embodiment of a method for operating a networknode in order to handle a call with respect to an idle mode SIM of a UEdevice when a call with respect to a connected mode SIM of the UE deviceis already in progress, according to some embodiments.

While the features described herein are susceptible to variousmodifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof areshown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described indetail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detaileddescription thereto are not intended to be limiting to the particularform disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover allmodifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spiritand scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Acronyms

The following acronyms are used in this disclosure.

3GPP: Third Generation Partnership Project

3GPP2: Third Generation Partnership Project 2

5G NR: 5^(th) Generation New Radio

ACK: Acknowledgement

ARQ: Automatic Repeat Request

DC: Dual Connectivity

DL: Downlink

DRB: (user) Data Radio Bearer

DRX: Discontinuous Reception

DSDS: Dual SIM Dual Standby

eNB (or eNodeB): Evolved Node B, i.e., the base station of 3GPP LTE

EN-DC: E-UTRA NR Dual Connectivity

eSIM: embedded SIM or electronic SIM

eUICC: embedded UICC

gNB (or gNodeB): next Generation NodeB, i.e., the base station of 5G NR

GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications

HARQ: Hybrid ARQ

KPI: Key Performance Indicator(s)

LTE: Long Term Evolution

LTE-A: LTE-Advanced

MAC: Medium Access Control

MAC-CE: MAC Control Element

MCG: Master Cell Group

MCS: Modulation & Coding Scheme

MO: Mobile Originated

MR-DC: Multi-RAT DC

NR: New Radio

NR-DC: NR Dual Connectivity

NW: Network

RAT: Radio Access Technology

RLC: Radio Link Control

RRC: Radio Resource Control

SCG: Secondary Cell Group

SIM: Subscriber Identity Module

SRB: Signalling Radio Bearer

UE: User Equipment

UICC: Universal Integrated Circuit Card

UL: Uplink

UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

USIM: UMTS SIM

Terms

The following is a glossary of terms used in this disclosure:

Memory Medium—Any of various types of memory devices or storage devices.The term “memory medium” is intended to include an installation medium,e.g., a CD-ROM, floppy disks, or tape device; a computer system memoryor random access memory such as DRAM, DDR RAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, RambusRAM, etc.; a non-volatile memory such as a Flash, magnetic media, e.g.,a hard drive, or optical storage; registers, or other similar types ofmemory elements, etc. The memory medium may include other types ofmemory as well or combinations thereof. In addition, the memory mediummay be located in a first computer system in which the programs areexecuted, or may be located in a second different computer system whichconnects to the first computer system over a network, such as theInternet. In the latter instance, the second computer system may provideprogram instructions to the first computer for execution. The term“memory medium” may include two or more memory mediums which may residein different locations, e.g., in different computer systems that areconnected over a network. The memory medium may store programinstructions (e.g., embodied as computer programs) that may be executedby one or more processors.

Carrier Medium—a memory medium as described above, as well as a physicaltransmission medium, such as a bus, network, and/or other physicaltransmission medium that conveys signals such as electrical,electromagnetic, or digital signals.

Programmable Hardware Element—includes various hardware devicescomprising multiple programmable function blocks connected via aprogrammable interconnect. Examples include FPGAs (Field ProgrammableGate Arrays), PLDs (Programmable Logic Devices), FPOAs (FieldProgrammable Object Arrays), and CPLDs (Complex PLDs). The programmablefunction blocks may range from fine grained (combinatorial logic or lookup tables) to coarse grained (arithmetic logic units or processorcores). A programmable hardware element may also be referred to as“reconfigurable logic”.

Computer System—any of various types of computing or processing systems,including a personal computer system (PC), mainframe computer system,workstation, network appliance, Internet appliance, personal digitalassistant (PDA), personal communication device, smart phone, televisionsystem, grid computing system, or other device or combinations ofdevices. In general, the term “computer system” can be broadly definedto encompass any device (or combination of devices) having at least oneprocessor that executes instructions from a memory medium.

User Equipment (UE) (or “UE Device”)—any of various types of computersystems devices which are mobile or portable and which performs wirelesscommunications. Examples of UE devices include mobile telephones orsmart phones (e.g., iPhone™, Android™-based phones), portable gamingdevices (e.g., Nintendo DS™, PlayStation Portable™, Gameboy Advance™,iPhone™), wearable devices (e.g., smart watch, smart glasses), laptops,PDAs, portable Internet devices, music players, data storage devices, orother handheld devices, etc. In general, the term “UE” or “UE device”can be broadly defined to encompass any electronic, computing, and/ortelecommunications device (or combination of devices) which is easilytransported by a user and capable of wireless communication.

Base Station—The term “Base Station” has the full breadth of itsordinary meaning, and at least includes a wireless communication stationinstalled at a fixed location and used to communicate as part of awireless telephone system or radio system.

Processing Element—refers to any of various elements or combinations ofelements. Processing elements include, for example, circuits such as anASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), portions or circuits ofindividual processor cores, entire processor cores, individualprocessors, programmable hardware devices such as a field programmablegate array (FPGA), and/or larger portions of systems that includemultiple processors.

Automatically—refers to an action or operation performed by a computersystem (e.g., software executed by the computer system) or device (e.g.,circuitry, programmable hardware elements, ASICs, etc.), without userinput directly specifying or performing the action or operation. Thusthe term “automatically” is in contrast to an operation being manuallyperformed or specified by the user, where the user provides input todirectly perform the operation. An automatic procedure may be initiatedby input provided by the user, but the subsequent actions that areperformed “automatically” are not specified by the user, i.e., are notperformed “manually”, where the user specifies each action to perform.For example, a user filling out an electronic form by selecting eachfield and providing input specifying information (e.g., by typinginformation, selecting check boxes, radio selections, etc.) is fillingout the form manually, even though the computer system must update theform in response to the user actions. The form may be automaticallyfilled out by the computer system where the computer system (e.g.,software executing on the computer system) analyzes the fields of theform and fills in the form without any user input specifying the answersto the fields. As indicated above, the user may invoke the automaticfilling of the form, but is not involved in the actual filling of theform (e.g., the user is not manually specifying answers to fields butrather they are being automatically completed). The presentspecification provides various examples of operations beingautomatically performed in response to actions the user has taken.

FIGS. 1-3—Communication System

FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate exemplary (and simplified) wirelesscommunication systems. It is noted that the systems of FIGS. 1 and 2 aremerely examples of certain possible systems, and various embodiments maybe implemented in any of various ways, as desired.

The wireless communication system of FIG. 1 includes a base station 102Awhich communicates over a transmission medium with one or more userequipment (UE) devices 106A, 106B, etc., through 106N. Each of the userequipment devices may be referred to herein as “user equipment” (UE). Inthe wireless communication system of FIG. 2, in addition to the basestation 102A, base station 102B also communicates (e.g., simultaneouslyor concurrently) over a transmission medium with the UE devices 106A,106B, etc., through 106N.

The base stations 102A and 102B may be base transceiver stations (BTSs)or cell sites, and may include hardware that enables wirelesscommunication with the user devices 106A through 106N. Each base station102 may also be equipped to communicate with a core network 100 (e.g.,base station 102A may be coupled to core network 100A, while basestation 102B may be coupled to core network 100B), which may be a corenetwork of a cellular service provider. Each core network 100 may becoupled to one or more external networks (such as external network 108),which may include the Internet, a Public Switched Telephone Network(PSTN), or any other network. Thus, the base station 102A may facilitatecommunication between the user devices and/or between the user devicesand the network 100A; in the system of FIG. 2, the base station 102B mayfacilitate communication between the user devices and/or between theuser devices and the network 100B.

The base stations 102A and 102B and the user devices may be configuredto communicate over the transmission medium using any of various radioaccess technologies (RATs), also referred to as wireless communicationtechnologies, or telecommunication standards, such as GSM, UMTS (WCDMA),LTE, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD,eHRPD), Wi-Fi, WiMAX etc.

For example, base station 102A and core network 100A may operateaccording to a first cellular communication standard (e.g., LTE) whilebase station 102B and core network 100B operate according to a second(e.g., different) cellular communication standard (e.g., GSM, UMTS,and/or one or more CDMA2000 cellular communication standards). The twonetworks may be controlled by the same network operator (e.g., cellularservice provider or “carrier”), or by different network operators. Inaddition, the two networks may be operated independently of one another(e.g., if they operate according to different cellular communicationstandards), or may be operated in a somewhat coupled or tightly coupledmanner.

Note also that while two different networks may be used to support twodifferent cellular communication technologies, such as illustrated inthe network configuration shown in FIG. 2, other network configurationsimplementing multiple cellular communication technologies are alsopossible. As one example, base stations 102A and 102B might operateaccording to different cellular communication standards but couple tothe same core network. As another example, multi-mode base stationscapable of simultaneously supporting different cellular communicationtechnologies (e.g., LTE and CDMA 1×RTT, GSM and UMTS, or any othercombination of cellular communication technologies) might be coupled toa core network that also supports the different cellular communicationtechnologies. Any of various other network deployment scenarios are alsopossible.

As a further possibility, it is also possible that base station 102A andbase station 102B may operate according to the same wirelesscommunication technology (or an overlapping set of wirelesscommunication technologies). For example, base station 102A and corenetwork 100A may be operated by one cellular service providerindependently of base station 102B and core network 100B, which may beoperated by a different (e.g., competing) cellular service provider.Thus in this case, despite utilizing similar and possibly compatiblecellular communication technologies, the UE devices 106A-106N mightcommunicate with the base stations 102A-102B independently, possibly byutilizing separate subscriber identities to communicate with differentcarriers' networks.

A UE 106 may be capable of communicating using multiple wirelesscommunication standards. For example, a UE 106 might be configured tocommunicate using either or both of a 3GPP cellular communicationstandard (such as LTE) or a 3GPP2 cellular communication standard (suchas a cellular communication standard in the CDMA2000 family of cellularcommunication standards). As another example, a UE 106 might beconfigured to communicate using different 3GPP cellular communicationstandards (such as two or more of GSM, UMTS, LTE, or LTE-A). Thus, asnoted above, a UE 106 might be configured to communicate with basestation 102A (and/or other base stations) according to a first cellularcommunication standard (e.g., LTE) and might also be configured tocommunicate with base station 102B (and/or other base stations)according to a second cellular communication standard (e.g., one or moreCDMA2000 cellular communication standards, UMTS, GSM, etc.).

Base stations 102A and 102B and other base stations operating accordingto the same or different cellular communication standards may thus beprovided as one or more networks of cells, which may provide continuousor nearly continuous overlapping service to UEs 106A-106N and similardevices over a wide geographic area via one or more cellularcommunication standards.

A UE 106 might also or alternatively be configured to communicate usingWLAN, Bluetooth, one or more global navigational satellite systems(GNSS, e.g., GPS or GLONASS), one and/or more mobile televisionbroadcasting standards (e.g., ATSC-M/H or DVB-H), etc. Othercombinations of wireless communication standards (including more thantwo wireless communication standards) are also possible.

FIG. 3 illustrates user equipment 106 (e.g., one of the devices 106Athrough 106N) in communication with a base station 102 (e.g., one of thebase stations 102A or 102B). The UE 106 may be a device with wirelessnetwork connectivity such as a mobile phone, a hand-held device, acomputer or a tablet, a wearable device or virtually any type ofwireless device.

The UE may include a processor that is configured to execute programinstructions stored in memory. The UE may perform any of the methodembodiments described herein by executing such stored instructions.Alternatively, or in addition, the UE may include a programmablehardware element such as an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) that isconfigured to perform any of the method embodiments described herein, orany portion of any of the method embodiments described herein.

The UE 106 may be configured to communicate using any of multiplewireless communication protocols. For example, the UE 106 may beconfigured to communicate using two or more of GSM, UMTS (W-CDMA,TD-SCDMA, etc.), CDMA2000 (1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD, etc.), LTE,LTE-A, WLAN, or GNSS. Other combinations of wireless communicationstandards are also possible.

The UE 106 may include one or more antennas for communicating using oneor more wireless communication protocols. Within the UE 106, one or moreparts of a receive and/or transmit chain may be shared between multiplewireless communication standards; for example, the UE 106 might beconfigured to communicate using either (or both) of GSM or LTE using asingle shared radio. The shared radio may include a single antenna, ormay include multiple antennas (e.g., for MIMO or beamforming) forperforming wireless communications. MIMO is an acronym for Multi-InputMultiple-Output.

FIG. 4—Example of Block Diagram of a UE

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a block diagram of a UE 106. As shown,the UE 106 may include a system on chip (SOC) 300, which may includeportions for various purposes. For example, as shown, the SOC 300 mayinclude processor(s) 302 which may execute program instructions for theUE 106 and display circuitry 304 which may perform graphics processingand provide display signals to the display 345. The processor(s) 302 mayalso be coupled to memory management unit (MMU) 340, which may beconfigured to receive addresses from the processor(s) 302 and translatethose addresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory 306, read onlymemory (ROM) 350, NAND flash memory 310) and/or to other circuits ordevices, such as the display circuitry 304, radio 330, connector I/F320, and/or display 345. The MMU 340 may be configured to perform memoryprotection and page table translation or set up. In some embodiments,the MMU 340 may be included as a portion of the processor(s) 302.

As shown, the SOC 300 may be coupled to various other circuits of the UE106. For example, the UE 106 may include various types of memory (e.g.,including Flash memory 310), a connector interface 320 (e.g., forcoupling to a computer system, dock, charging station, etc.), thedisplay 345, and radio 330.

The radio 330 may include one or more RF chains. Each RF chain mayinclude a transmit chain, a receive chain, or both. For example, radio330 may include two RF chains to support dual connectivity with two basestations (or two cells). The radio may be configured to support wirelesscommunication according to one or more wireless communication standards,e.g., one or more of GSM, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, WCDMA, CDMA2000, Bluetooth,Wi-Fi, GPS, etc.

The radio 330 couples to antenna subsystem 335, which includes one ormore antennas. For example, the antenna subsystem 335 may include aplurality of antennas to support applications such as dual connectivityor MIMO or beamforming. The antenna subsystem 335 transmits and receivesradio signals to/from one or more base stations or devices through theradio propagation medium, which is typically the atmosphere.

In some embodiments, the processor(s) 302 may include a basebandprocessor to generate uplink baseband signals and/or to process downlinkbaseband signals. The processor(s) 302 may be configured to perform dataprocessing according to one or more wireless telecommunicationstandards, e.g., one or more of GSM, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, WCDMA, CDMA2000,Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc.

The UE 106 may also include one or more user interface elements. Theuser interface elements may include any of various elements, such asdisplay 345 (which may be a touchscreen display), a keyboard (which maybe a discrete keyboard or may be implemented as part of a touchscreendisplay), a mouse, a microphone and/or speakers, one or more cameras,one or more sensors, one or more buttons, sliders, and/or dials, and/orany of various other elements capable of providing information to a userand/or receiving/interpreting user input.

As shown, the UE 106 may also include two or more subscriber identitymodules (SIMs) such as SIM 360 and SIM 362. One or both of SIMs 360 and362 may be implemented as an embedded SIM (eSIM). In this case, SIM 360and/or SIM 362 may be implemented in device hardware and/or software.For example, in some embodiments, the UE 106 may include an embeddedUICC (eUICC), e.g., a device which is built into the UE 106 and is notremovable. The eUICC may be programmable, such that one or more eSIMsmay be implemented on the eUICC. In other embodiments, the eSIM may beinstalled in UE 106 software, e.g., as program instructions stored on amemory medium (such as memory 306 or Flash 310) executing on a processor(such as processor 302) in the UE 106. As one example, a SIM 360 may bean application which executes on a Universal Integrated Circuit Card(UICC). Alternatively, or in addition, one or both of SIMs 360 and 362may be implemented as removeable SIM cards.

Each SIM 360 or 362 may include a number of types of information,including personalized information specific to a user and/or device(e.g., personalized information), and information that is not specificto a user and/or device (e.g., common information). The personalizedinformation may include user/unit specific data, for example informationidentifying the user/unit to their carrier's network, personalizedauthorization and/or security information, etc. Some or all of thepersonalized information may be used as a subscriber identity for the UE106, for example in order to identify the subscriber to a carrier'snetwork and to obtain cellular service from the carrier.

As one example, the personalized information may include one or moreInternational Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) numbers. An IMSI mayidentify the subscriber to their carrier's network. The IMSI may, forexample, be a number including the subscriber's “home” mobile countrycode (MCC) and mobile network code (MNC), as well as a MobileSubscription Identification Number (MSIN) which is unique to thesubscriber. The personalized information may also or alternativelyinclude a personal identification number (PIN) (e.g., a code which theuser may use to access their SIM), a personal unblocking code and/orpersonal unblocking key (PUC/PUK), and one or more authentication keys(K/Ki). Any of a variety of other personalized information may also oralternatively be used, as desired.

Thus, each SIM 360 and 362 may contain subscriber identity informationthat may be used to identify the subscriber to its carrier cellularnetwork. As noted above, the UE 106 may utilize multiple subscriberidentities. For example, a user may consider it desirable to obtainservice from multiple carriers for any of a variety of reasons,including differing footprints/service areas of different carriers,different service plans/pricing offered by different carriers, ordifferent technologies used. In some cases it may be desirable toutilize multiple subscriber identities (whether from the same ordifferent carriers) as a means of differentiating types of interactions,such as work-related communications and personal communications. Forexample, one SIM may be used to provide a work phone number while theother SIM may be used to provide a personal phone number.

As a further possibility, a situation might arise in which it might bedesirable to utilize multiple subscriber identities in a single devicefor some carriers which implement LTE networks. In particular, in somecases an LTE network may be at least initially deployed forpacket-switched data communications (e.g., web browsing, email and othernetworking applications, etc.), while a pre-existing GSM and/or UMTSnetwork may be utilized for circuit-switched communication technologiessuch as voice communications.

As further described below, the UE 106 may implement various techniqueswhich enable the UE to improve performance when one of the SIMs is aconnected state while another one of the SIMs in an idle state.Accordingly, as described further subsequently herein, the UE 106 mayinclude hardware and software components for implementing suchtechniques.

The processor 302 of the UE device 106 may be configured to implementpart or all of the methods described herein, e.g., by executing programinstructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., a non-transitorycomputer-readable memory medium). In other embodiments, processor 302may be configured as or include: a programmable hardware element, suchas an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array); or an ASIC (ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuit); or a combination thereof.

FIG. 5—Example of a Base Station

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of a base station 102. It is notedthat the base station of FIG. 5 is merely one example of a possible basestation. As shown, the base station 102 may include processor(s) 404which may execute program instructions for the base station 102. Theprocessor(s) 404 may also be coupled to memory management unit (MMU)440, which may be configured to receive addresses from the processor(s)404 and translate those addresses to locations in memory (e.g., memory460 and read only memory ROM 450) or to other circuits or devices.

The base station 102 may include at least one network port 470. Thenetwork port 470 may be configured to couple to a telephone network andprovide access (for a plurality of devices, such as UE devices 106) tothe telephone network, as described above in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The network port 470 (or an additional network port) may also oralternatively be configured to couple to a cellular network, e.g., acore network of a cellular service provider. The core network mayprovide mobility related services and/or other services to a pluralityof devices, such as UE devices 106. In some cases, the network port 470may couple to a telephone network via the core network, and/or the corenetwork may provide a telephone network (e.g., among other UE devicesserviced by the cellular service provider).

The base station 102 may include a radio 430 having one or more RFchains. Each RF chain may include a transmit chain, a receive chain, orboth. (For example, the base station 102 may include at least one RFchain per sector or cell.) The radio 430 couples to antenna subsystem434, which includes one or more antennas. Multiple antennas would beneeded, e.g., to support applications such as MIMO or beamforming. Theantenna subsystem 434 transmits and receives radio signals to/from UEsthrough the radio propagation medium (typically the atmosphere).

In some embodiments, the processor(s) 404 may include a basebandprocessor to generate downlink baseband signals and/or to process uplinkbaseband signals. The baseband processor may be configured to operateaccording to one or more wireless telecommunication standards,including, but not limited to. GSM, LTE, WCDMA, CDMA2000, etc.

The processor(s) 404 of the base station 102 may be configured toimplement part or all of the methods described herein, e.g., byexecuting program instructions stored on a memory medium (e.g., anon-transitory computer-readable memory medium). In some embodiments,the processor(s) 404 may include: a programmable hardware element, suchas an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array); or an ASIC (ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuit); or a combination thereof.

Improved Throughput and Radio Resource Utilization for User EquipmentHaving a Plurality of SIMs

Various mechanisms are herein disclosed for improving throughput and/orradio resource utilization for user equipment (UE) having a plurality ofSIMs and for networks that communicate with such user equipment.

In some embodiments, the UE is a Dual SIM Dual Active (DSDA) device. ADSDA device has two SIMs, and more than one transceiver (i.e., more thanone RF TxRx chain). Both SIMs are able to communicate simultaneously,with each SIM being mapped to an independent RF TxRx chain. In protocolterms, both SIMs can be in (RRC) Connected mode at same time. Thus,there may be no need to time share an RF TxRx chain between the twoSIMs.

In some embodiments, the UE is a Dual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS) device. ADSDS device is a device in which there can be only one SIM in Connectedmode at any given time. If one of the SIMs is in Connected mode, theother must be in an IDLE (or standby) state. A DSDS device typically hasa single transmitter and a single receiver. Such a DSDS device may bereferred to as a Single-Receive DSDS (SR-DSDS) device. Since an SR-DSDSdevice has a single transmitter, both SIMs cannot transmitsimultaneously, and hence, both SIMs cannot be in Connected modesimultaneously. In IDLE mode, both SIMs can monitor the pages since theycan time share the single receiver. When one of the SIMs entersConnected mode, the other SIM can still receive its pages and remain inservice, as long as it's possible to timeshare the receiver with theConnected-mode SIM. Timesharing the receiver is usually possible whenthe Connected mode SIM is in data call. But is it is not possible if theConnected-mode SIM is in a voice call since there is no opportunity totimeshare the single receiver. Thus, the other SIM (in IDLE Mode) entersa “no service” state when the Connected-mode SIM is in a voice call.

In some embodiments, the UE is a Dual-Receiver Dual SIM Dual Standby(DR-DSDS) device. A DR-DSDS device is a device in which there are tworeceivers but only one transmitter. Thus, each SIM may be mapped to acorresponding receiver, and both SIMs can receive pages in parallel, andperform IDLE-mode measurements in parallel (for mobility purposes). Whenone of the SIMs enters the connected mode, the other SIM can stillmonitor its pages since there is a dedicated receiver allocated to it,and this is true regardless of the call type (data call vs. voice call)of the Connected-mode SIM. One difference between SR-DSDS and DR-DSDSdevices is that, for the DR-DSDS device, when one SIM is in Connectedmode, the other SIM may remain in service all the time, regardless ofthe call type on the Connected-mode SIM. For the SR-DSDS device, whenone of the SIMs is in Connected mode, the other SIM (which is in IDLEmode) enters a “no service” state if the Connected-mode SIM is in avoice call.

In some embodiments, a wireless user equipment (UE) device 600 may beconfigured as shown in FIG. 6. UE 600 may include: a radio subsystem 605for performing wireless communication; a processing element 610operatively coupled to the radio subsystem; and a plurality 615 ofsubscriber identity modules (SIMs). (UE 600 may also include any subsetof the UE features described above, e.g., in connection with FIGS. 1-4.)

The radio subsystem 605 may include one or more RF chains, e.g., asvariously described above. Each RF chain may be configured to receivesignals from the radio propagation channel and/or transmit signals ontothe radio propagation channel. Thus, each RF chain may include atransmit chain and/or a receive chain. The radio subsystem 605 may becoupled to one or more antennas (or arrays of antennas) to facilitatethe signal transmission and reception. Each RF chain (or, some of the RFchains) may be tunable to a desired frequency, thus allowing the RFchain to receive or transmit at different frequencies at differenttimes.

The processing element 610 may be coupled to the radio subsystem and tothe plurality of SIMs, and may be configured as variously describedabove. (For example, processing element may be realized by processor(s)302.) In some embodiments, the processing element may include one ormore baseband processors to (a) generate baseband signals to betransmitted by the radio subsystem and/or (b) process baseband signalsprovided by the radio subsystem.

The plurality 615 of SIMs may include a first SIM 620 and a second SIM625. Each of the SIMs supports access to a corresponding wirelessnetwork. In other words, each SIM may be subscribed to a correspondingcarrier. Each SIM may have a corresponding assigned mobile phone number.The carrier associated with the first SIM may be the same as ordifferent from the carrier associated with the second SIM.

The processing element 610 may be further configured as variouslydescribed in the sections below.

In some embodiments, a wireless base station 700 of a first wirelessnetwork (not shown) may be configured as shown in FIG. 7. The wirelessbase station may include: a radio subsystem 705 for performing wirelesscommunication; and a processing element 710 operatively coupled to theradio subsystem. (The wireless base station may also include any subsetof the base station features described above, e.g., the featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 5.)

The radio subsystem 705 may include one or more RF chains. Each RF chainmay be tunable to a desired frequency, thus allowing the RF chain toreceive or transmit at different frequencies at different times.

The processing element 710 may be realized as variously described above.For example, in one embodiment, processing element 710 may be realizedby processor(s) 404. In some embodiments, the processing element mayinclude one or more baseband processors to: (a) generate basebandsignals to be transmitted by the radio subsystem, and/or, (b) processbaseband signals provided by the radio subsystem.

In some embodiments, the NW may be aware of the traffic pattern andserving frequencies of the SIMs in a multi-SIM UE, and providecoordinated configuration and/or scheduling for the multi-SIM UE. TheSIMs may include at least a first SIM associated with the NW and asecond SIM associated with another network.

In some embodiments, for the NW to be become aware of the trafficpattern and serving frequencies of one or more of the SIMs, the NW mayreceive the traffic pattern and/or serving frequencies via a UE NASprocedure. (NAS is an acronym for Non-Access Stratum.) The NW mayestablish an association between the SIMs, and record the associationwithin the NW.

Alternatively, the UE may provide multi-SIM assistance information (suchas traffic pattern and/or serving frequencies) to the NW, to allow theNW to perform coordinated configuration and/or scheduling. For example,the UE may provide time-domain information such as the traffic patternof the potential activity of the second SIM, where the potentialactivity may include, e.g., paging reception, SIB reception, idle modemeasurement. (SIB is an acronym for system information block.) Asanother example, the UE may provide frequency-domain information such asthe serving frequency of the second SIM to the NW. As yet anotherexample, the UE may simply provide to the NW an indication that the UEis a multi-SIM device, which may enable the NW to avoid wasted effort inthe case that the UE does not follow the scheduling instructions of theNW due to the activity of the second SIM.

In some embodiments, in order to provide coordinated configurationand/or scheduling for the multi-SIM UE, the NW may perform one or moreof the following methods.

Method 1: The NW may provide the traffic pattern (e.g., DRXconfiguration) of the second SIM to the UE, and the UE may perform datareception and/or transmission for the first SIM based on the trafficpattern, e.g., as variously disclosed herein.

Method 2: The NW may reconfigure the UE to the serving cell with thefrequency so that the UE's RF hardware is capable of performingsimultaneous data transfers (transmission/reception) for both SIMs.

Method 3: The NW may configure the UE to perform autonomous denial witha denial probability, and the UE may autonomously deny the datatransmission of the first SIM.

In some embodiments, the NW may provide coordinated configuration and/orscheduling for a multi-SIM UE operating in a dual connectivity mode,e.g., in a Multi-RAT Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) mode or a non-DC mode.For the MR-DC mode, the coordination may be CG (Cell Group) specific,i.e., the coordination may be SCG or MCG specific, and the UE assistanceinformation may also include the impacted CG information (MCG/SCG). (SCGis an acronym for Second Cell Group. MCG is an acronym for Master CellGroup.)

In some embodiments, the first SIM and the second SIM may be associatedwith the same carrier. In these embodiments, when the first SIM of theUE is in connected mode, and the paging of the second SIM is triggeredby core network (CN), the NW may employ one or more of the followingmethods for handling the paging of the second SIM.

Method 1: The NW may deliver the paging for the second SIM in a legacyfashion. The UE may perform paging reception for the second SIM.

Method 2: The NW may deliver the paging for the second SIM via theconnection with the first SIM, e.g., in an RRC signaling container forthe first SIM, or in a new L2 PDU for the paging indication includingthe information of the second SIM. (PDU is an acronym for Protocol DataUnit.)

Method 3: The NW may suspend the paging of the second SIM, and deliverthe paging after the first SIM's connection is completed. Paging for thesecond SIM may be cached by the NW for certain time duration. While atimer is running, the caller may be informed that call establishment isbeing attempted while callee is busy; thereafter, if the timer expiresbefore the call can be established, the caller may be informed that thecallee is busy and the call cannot be established.

Method 4: The NW may suspend the second SIM's paging, and reply “userbusy” directly to the caller.

Reduction of Page Monitoring Impact to Connected Mode Performance

Suppose that SIM-1 transitions to connected mode while SIM-2 is in idlemode and performing page monitoring according to a configured DRX cycle.When SIM-1 transitions to the connected mode, a session of data transferbegins, e.g., a high throughput data transfer session. However, a UEsuspends SIM-1 every DRX cycle to monitor the paging opportunities (orpaging occasions) for SIM-2 as well as perform serving cellmeasurements, and depending on the channel conditions, measurement(s) ofintrafrequency, inter-frequency or inter-RAT neighbors, which could takeas much as 5 to 10 ms. During this time, a NW will continue to send DLdata and also provide UL grants to the UE which will not be utilized bythe UE. This results in HARQ retransmissions and radio resource wastageon the NW side. Moreover, the NW side will receive no response (UL orACK) during the tune away, which causes MCS reduction or context release(e.g., call drop).

FIG. 8A shows a default data transfer session 810 for SIM-1, which isperiodically interrupted by momentary intervals of time (shown in solidblack) where the RF chain under use is tuned away (to a differentfrequency if the carrier of SIM-2 is different from the carrier ofSIM-1) by the UE in order to support the monitoring of paging occasions815 for SIM-2. (Data transfers of the session 810 would occur in thecrosshatched regions.) As shown at 805, any uplink grants for SIM-1during the momentary intervals would be wasted, and any downlink datatransferred for SIM-1 during the momentary intervals would be wasted,since SIM-1 doesn't have control of the RF-chain during those periods oftime.

In some embodiments, one may reduce the impact of page monitoring toconnected mode performance by applying the following methodology.

The UE may notify the network (e.g., the network of SIM-1 and/or thenetwork of SIM-2) of its multi-SIM capability during a registrationprocedure. SIM-1 may inform its carrier (denoted Carrier_(SIM1)) aboutSIM-2's paging schedule (e.g., by MAC-CE or a higher layer procedure).Using the paging schedule, Carrier_(SIM1) stops scheduling data forSIM-1 during the above described momentary intervals of time, and alsostops DL data transmissions for SIM-1 during those momentary intervals.In other words, Carrier_(SIM1) provides for SIM-1's transfer sessionwith a suspension schedule, as shown at 820 of FIG. 8A. Notice that themomentary intervals of time are now shown at 825 in white (instead ofsolid black), to indicate that they are no longer wasted periods oftime.

This methodology may achieve certain benefits such as the following.Carrier_(SIM1) can allocate UL grants to other UEs and DL dataretransmissions to SIM-1 are avoided during these gaps, which savesnetwork resources. Retransmissions may be reduced, and glitches in DLthroughput may be reduced, with the consequence that user experience isimproved.

In some embodiments, a method for reducing the impact of page monitoringto connected mode performance may be performed as shown in FIG. 8B. WhenSIM-1 is in connected mode 855 and SIM-2 is in idle mode 860, a pagingoffset and/or DRX cycle length may be supplied from SIM-2 to SIM-1, asshown at 865. SIM-1 may then direct the transmission 870 of a tune awayschedule to the carrier network (Carrier_(SIM1)) associated with SIM-1,e.g., via a base station of Carrier_(SIM1). The tune away schedule mayinclude information indicating the paging offset and/or DRX cyclelength. In response to receiving the tune away schedule, Carrier_(SIM1)may block UL grants and DL data transmissions for SIM-1 based on thetune away schedule, as shown at 875.

Recall now the user equipment 600 of FIG. 6. In some embodiments, inresponse to determining that the first SIM 620 is entering or hasentered a connected state and that the second SIM 625 is entering or hasentered an idle state, the processing element 610 may be configured todirect the radio subsystem 605 to transmit page scheduling informationto the wireless network corresponding to the first SIM. In analternative embodiment, the processing element 610 may be configured todirect the radio subsystem 605 to transmit page scheduling informationas part of a registration procedure that registers the UE device withthe wireless network associated with the first SIM 620.

The page scheduling information may indicate a periodic sequence oftemporal intervals used (or to be used) at least for monitoring pagesfrom the wireless network corresponding to the second SIM. (The pagescheduling information may also include a page offset.)

Furthermore, during the connected state of the first SIM 620 and theidle state of the second SIM 625, the processing element may beconfigured to control an RF chain of the radio subsystem 605 to supporta data transfer process for the first SIM and page monitoring for thesecond SIM. The page monitoring may be performed only during thetemporal intervals of the periodic sequence. In some embodiments, thedata transfer process may have either an uplink direction or a downlinkdirection, and occur only outside the temporal intervals of the periodicsequence.

In the uplink direction, the data transfer process transmits data to abase station of the wireless network corresponding to the first SIM,using the RF chain. In particular, the processing element may provide abaseband signal carrying user data to the RF chain and direct the RFchain to transmit radio signals corresponding to the baseband signal. Inthe downlink direction, the data transfer process may receive datatransmitted by the base station. In particular, the processing elementmay direct the RF chain to receive radio signals transmitted by the basestation and to convert those radio signals into a baseband signal. Theprocessing element may recover data from the baseband signal and providethe data to higher protocol layers of the UE.

In some embodiments, at least one of the temporal intervals is used forperforming cell measurement on one or more cells of the wireless networkof the second SIM. The processing element may report the measurement tothe wireless network of the second SIM, e.g., during one of the temporalintervals.

In some embodiments, data transfers of the data transfer process areperformed when the RF chain is tuned to a first frequency. For each ofthe temporal intervals, the page monitoring may include tuning the RFchain away from the first frequency to a second frequency during thetemporal interval, e.g., at the start of the temporal interval.

In some embodiments, the page scheduling information may include a DRXcycle value. (DRX is an acronym for Discontinuous Reception.) In someembodiments, the page scheduling information includes a page offset. Insome embodiments, the page scheduling information may include a durationof the temporal intervals. In some embodiments, the page schedulinginformation may include any combination of DRX cycle value, page offset,and duration of the temporal intervals.

In some embodiments, the wireless network corresponding to the first SIMand the wireless network corresponding to the second SIM belong todifferent carriers.

In some embodiments, at least one of the SIMs is an embedded SIM.

In some embodiments, a wireless user equipment (UE) device may include:a radio subsystem for performing wireless communication; a processingelement operatively coupled to the radio subsystem; and a plurality ofsubscriber identity modules (SIMs). Each of the subscriber identitymodules may support access to a corresponding wireless network. Theprocessing element may be configured to: in response to determining thata first of the SIMs is entering or has entered a connected state andthat a second of the SIMs is entering or has entered an idle state,direct the radio subsystem to transmit page scheduling information tothe wireless network corresponding to the first SIM, wherein the pagescheduling information indicates a periodic sequence of temporalintervals at least for monitoring pages from the wireless networkcorresponding to the second SIM; and during the connected state of thefirst SIM and the idle state of the second SIM, control an RF chain ofthe radio subsystem to support (a) a data transfer process for the firstSIM and (b) page monitoring for the second SIM. The page monitoring maybe performed only during the temporal intervals of the periodicsequence. The data transfer process may have either an uplink directionor a downlink direction, and occur only outside the temporal intervalsof the periodic sequence.

In some embodiments, at least one of the temporal intervals is also usedfor performing a cell measurement on one or more cells of the wirelessnetwork of the second SIM.

In some embodiments, data transfers of the data transfer process areperformed when the RF chain is tuned to a first frequency. For each ofthe temporal intervals, the action of page monitoring may include tuningthe RF chain away from the first frequency to a second frequency, e.g.,during the temporal interval.

In some embodiments, the page scheduling information includes a DRXcycle value. The DRX cycle value is the period between successive pagingopportunities.

In some embodiments, the page scheduling information includes a pageoffset. The page offset is defined as an offset to a paging frame or aSystem Frame Number when paging frame is scheduled.

In some embodiments, the page scheduling information includes a durationof the temporal intervals.

In some embodiments, the page scheduling information may include anycombination of: DRX cycle value; page offset; and duration of thetemporal intervals.

In some embodiments, the wireless network corresponding to the first SIMand the wireless network corresponding to the second SIM belong todifferent carriers.

In some embodiments, at least one of the SIMs is an embedded SIM.

In some embodiments, a method 880 for operating a wireless userequipment (UE) device having a plurality of subscriber identity modules(SIMs) may be configured as shown in FIG. 8C. The method may beperformed by a processing element of the UE device, e.g., as variouslydescribed above.

At 885, in response to determining that a first of the SIMs is enteringor has entered a connected state and that a second of the SIMs isentering or has entered an idle state, the processing element may directa radio subsystem of the wireless UE device to transmit page schedulinginformation to a wireless network corresponding to the first SIM. Thepage scheduling information may indicate a sequence (e.g., a periodicsequence) of temporal intervals at least for monitoring pages from awireless network corresponding to the second SIM.

At 890, during the connected state of the first SIM and the idle stateof the second SIM, the processing element may control an RF chain of theradio subsystem to support a data transfer process for the first SIM andpage monitoring for the second SIM. The page monitoring may be performedonly during the temporal intervals of the sequence. The data transferprocess may have either an uplink direction or a downlink direction, andoccur only outside the temporal intervals of the sequence.

In some embodiments, the page scheduling information may include a DRXcycle value. In some embodiments, the page scheduling information mayinclude a page offset. In some embodiments, the page schedulinginformation may include a duration of the temporal intervals. In someembodiments, the page scheduling information may include any combinationof the DRX cycle value, the page offset, and the duration of thetemporal intervals.

In some embodiments, the wireless network corresponding to the first SIMand the wireless network corresponding to the second SIM belong todifferent carriers.

In some embodiments, a method for operating a wireless user equipment(UE) device having a plurality of subscriber identity modules (SIMs) maybe performed as follows. In response to determining that a first of theSIMs is entering or has entered a connected state and that a second ofthe SIMs is entering or has entered an idle state, a processing elementof the wireless UE device may direct a radio subsystem of the wirelessUE device to transmit page scheduling information to a wireless networkcorresponding to the first SIM. The page scheduling information mayindicate a sequence (e.g., a periodic sequence) of temporal intervals atleast for monitoring pages from a wireless network corresponding to thesecond SIM. During the connected state of the first SIM and the idlestate of the second SIM, the processing element may control an RF chainof the radio subsystem to support (e.g., conduct) a data transferprocess for the first SIM and page monitoring for the second SIM. Thepage monitoring may be performed during (e.g., only during) the temporalintervals of the sequence. The data transfer process may have either anuplink direction or a downlink direction, and occur only outside thetemporal intervals of the sequence.

In some embodiments, the page scheduling information includes a DRXcycle value. In some embodiments, the page scheduling informationincludes a page offset. In some embodiments, the page schedulinginformation includes a duration of the temporal intervals. In someembodiments, the page scheduling information may include any combinationof the DRX cycle value, the page offset, and the duration of thetemporal intervals.

In some embodiments, the wireless network corresponding to the first SIMand the wireless network corresponding to the second SIM belong todifferent carriers.

Recall now the base station 700 of FIG. 7. The base station may beassociated with (e.g., belong to) a first wireless network (not shown).In some embodiments, the processing element 710 may be configured toreceive page scheduling information from a user equipment (UE) device.(The UE device may transmit the page scheduling information in responseto determining that a first SIM of the UE device is entering or hasentered a connected state and that a second SIM of the UE device isentering or has entered an idle state.) The page scheduling informationmay indicate a sequence (e.g., a periodic sequence) of temporalintervals associated with paging opportunities (or paging occasions) ofa second wireless network different from the first wireless network. Inresponse to receiving the page scheduling information, the processingelement 710 may be further configured to control an RF chain of theradio subsystem 705 to support a data transfer process associated withthe UE device, e.g., associated with the first SIM of the UE device. Thedata transfer process may have either an uplink direction or a downlinkdirection. The data transfers of the data transfer process may bescheduled only outside the sequence of temporal intervals. The secondwireless network may page the UE device (or the second SIM of the UEdevice) during one or more of the temporal intervals.

In some embodiments, the page scheduling information may include aDiscontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle value. In some embodiments, the pagescheduling information may include a page offset. In some embodiments,the page scheduling information may include a duration of the temporalintervals. In some embodiments, the page scheduling information mayinclude any combination of DRX cycle value, page offset, and duration ofthe temporal intervals.

In some embodiments, the processing element 710 may be furtherconfigured to schedule uplink resources for a second UE device withinone or more of the temporal intervals of the sequence.

In some embodiments, the base station 700 may also include an antennasubsystem including one or more antennas operatively coupled to theradio subsystem. The antenna subsystem may facilitate the transmissionand/or reception of radio signals onto/from the radio propagationmedium.

In some embodiments, the base station 700 may be configured as a masternode or a secondary node of a dual connectivity connection with the UEdevice, e.g., as variously described above and below.

In some embodiments, a wireless base station of a first wireless networkmay include: a radio subsystem for performing wireless communication;and a processing element operatively coupled to the radio subsystem,where the processing element is configured to: receive page schedulinginformation from a user equipment (UE) device, wherein the pagescheduling information indicates a sequence (e.g., a periodic sequence)of temporal intervals associated with paging opportunities (or pagingoccasions) of a second wireless network different from the firstwireless network; and in response to receiving the page schedulinginformation, control an RF chain of the radio subsystem to support adata transfer process associated with the UE device. The data transferprocess may have either an uplink direction or a downlink direction.Furthermore, data transfers of the data transfer process may bescheduled only outside the sequence of temporal intervals.

In some embodiments, the page scheduling information includes aDiscontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle value. In some embodiments, the pagescheduling information includes a page offset. In some embodiments, thepage scheduling information also includes a duration of the temporalintervals. In some embodiments, the page scheduling information mayinclude any combination of DRX cycle value, page offset, and duration ofthe temporal intervals.

In some embodiments, the processing element is further configured toschedule uplink resources to a second UE device within one or more ofthe temporal intervals of the sequence.

In some embodiments, the base station also includes an antenna subsystemincluding one or more antenna operatively coupled to the radiosubsystem.

In some embodiments, the wireless base station may be configured as amaster node or a secondary node of a dual connectivity connection withthe UE device.

Dual Connectivity Handling for Dual SIM

Suppose that SIM-1 is in connected mode in an EN-DC (E-UTRA-NR DualConnectivity) or an NR DC (New Radio Dual Connectivity) configuration.Further suppose that SIM-2 is in IDLE mode, and monitoring pagingoccasions, and performing measurements as per the configured DRX cycle.If RF that has been mapped to the NR leg is tuned away from SIM-1 toSIM-2 during paging occasions, then this tuning away may lead to beamfailure on the SCG (secondary cell group), NR leg. This will lead todegradation of throughput on the NR leg.

In some embodiments, one may improve UE and network performance byapplying the following methodology.

Both the master node and the secondary node may be informed in advanceabout SIM-2's DRX cycle and interruption time. (The master node hoststhe MCG while the secondary node hosts the SCG. In the case where SIM-1is in EN-DC mode, the master node is an eNB and the secondary node is agNB. In the case where SIM-1 is in NR-DC mode, the master node andsecondary node are both gNBs.) In EN-DC mode, the UE may indicate to thegNB and eNB whether the NR leg or the LTE leg will be tuned away forpage monitoring on SIM-2. In NR DC mode, the UE may indicate which ofthe two NR legs will be tuned away for page monitoring on SIM-2.

In the case of EN-DC, it may not be possible or desirable to tune awayRF mapped to the NR leg for page monitoring on SIM-2, especially if itis on FR2. Instead, RF mapped to the LTE leg should be tuned away toSIM-2. Thus, the UE may inform the network that the NR leg of SIM-1 willnot be tuned away, and the network can continue normally scheduling ULand DL transmission on the NR leg throughout the session.

If both RF chains need to be tuned away, e.g., due to implementationreasons (such as an RF restriction depending on SIM-1 and SIM-2frequencies), then the UE may inform the network that both RFfrequencies (i.e., RF frequencies mapped to NR and LTE in case of EN-DC,or to NR and NR in case of NR DC) are tuned away, to allow the networkto make efficient scheduling decisions.

In the case of EN-DC, if RF mapped to the NR leg has to be tuned awayfrom its assigned frequency, then the UE may inform the eNB and gNBaccordingly.

This methodology may achieve certain benefits, such as the following.The NW and the UE can make optimal scheduling decisions as the NW knowsthe UE's preference regarding which RF chain will be tuned away from theEN-DC (or NR DC) connection to monitor IDLE mode paging of the otherSIM.

Recall now the wireless UE device 600 of FIG. 6. In some embodiments,the processing element 610 may be configured to direct the radiosubsystem 605 to transmit page scheduling information to first andsecond base stations (not shown) of a first wireless networkcorresponding to the first SIM 620. The page scheduling information mayindicate a sequence (e.g., a periodic sequence) of temporal intervalsfor monitoring pages of a second wireless network corresponding to thesecond SIM 625.

In some embodiments, in a dual connectivity (DC) state of the first SIM620 and an idle state of the second SIM 625, the processing element 610may be further configured to control a first RF chain of the radiosubsystem to support (a) a first data transfer process for the first SIM620 and (b) page monitoring for the second SIM 620. The first datatransfer process may have either an uplink direction or a downlinkdirection.

Data transfers of the first data transfer process may occur outside(e.g., only outside) the temporal intervals of the sequence. (Thistemporal constraint on the first data transfer process may be aconsequence of the fact that processing element 610 performs datatransfers of the first data transfer process according to schedulingdecisions made by the base station that is cooperating to facilitate thefirst data transfer process, and the fact that this base station hasceased to schedule uplink and/or downlink resources for the first datatransfer process within the temporal intervals in response to havingreceived to the page scheduling information.) The page monitoring forthe second SIM may be performed during (e.g., only during) the temporalintervals of the sequence.

In some embodiments, the processing element 610 may be furtherconfigured to direct the radio subsystem 605 to transmit a selectionindicator to the first and second base stations prior to said pagemonitoring for the second SIM. The selection indicator indicates aselected one of the first and second base stations that is to be incommunication with the first RF chain during said controlling the firstRF chain to support the data transfer process and the page monitoring.For example, the selected base station may control the data transferprocess, and as part of said controlling, may avoid the scheduling ofdownlink transmissions and/or uplink grants for the UE during thetemporal intervals.

In some embodiments, in the DC state of the first SIM 620 and the idlestate of the second SIM 625, the processing element 610 may be furtherconfigured to control a second RF chain of the radio subsystem 605 tosupport a second data transfer process for the first SIM 620. (Thesecond data transfer process may have the same or opposite transferdirection as the first data transfer process.) In contrast with thefirst data transfer process, the second data transfer process may not beaffected by page monitoring for the idle mode SIM, e.g., as shown at 916of FIG. 9.

In some embodiments, in the DC state of the first SIM 620 and the idlestate of the second SIM 625, the processing element 610 may be furtherconfigured to control a second RF chain of the radio subsystem 605 tosupport a second data transfer process for the first SIM 620 and saidpage monitoring for the second SIM 625. (The second data transferprocess may have the same or opposite transfer direction as the firstdata transfer process.) The data transfers of the second data transferprocess may occur outside (e.g., only outside) the temporal intervals ofthe sequence, e.g., as illustrated by the temporal intervals 1014 ofFIG. 10.

In some embodiments, the processing element 610 may be furtherconfigured to direct the radio subsystem to transmit a selectionindicator to the first and second base stations, where the selectionindicator indicates that both the first and second RF chains aresubjected (or, to be subjected) to page monitoring.

The first and second base stations may conform to the same or differentradio access technologies. For example, one of the base stations may bean LTE eNodeB and other base station may be a gNB of 5G NR. As anotherexample, both base stations may be gNBs of 5G NR.

In some embodiments, the page scheduling information may include aDiscontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle and/or an interruption time, wherethe interruption time indicates a temporal length of each of saidtemporal intervals.

In some embodiments, the action of directing the radio subsystem totransmit the selection indicator may be performed in response todetermining that the first SIM 620 is entering or has entered a dualconnectivity (DC) state and that the second SIM 625 is entering or hasentered an idle state.

In some embodiments, a wireless user equipment (UE) device may include:a radio subsystem for performing wireless communication; a processingelement operatively coupled to the radio subsystem; and a plurality ofsubscriber identity modules (SIMs), where each of the subscriberidentity modules supports access to a corresponding wireless network.The processing element may be configured to direct the radio subsystemto transmit page scheduling information to first and second basestations of a first wireless network corresponding to a first of theSIMs. The page scheduling information may indicate a sequence (e.g., aperiodic sequence) of temporal intervals for monitoring pages of asecond wireless network corresponding to a second of the SIMs. In otherwords, the page scheduling information may indicate a sequence oftemporal intervals to be used by the second SIM to monitor pagingoccasions (opportunities) of the second wireless network. (A basestation of the second wireless network may transmit a page for the UEdevice during one or more of the temporal intervals.)

In some embodiments, the processing element may be further configuredto: in the dual connectivity (DC) state of the first SIM and an idlestate of the second SIM, control a first RF chain of the radio subsystemto support (a) a first data transfer process for the first SIM and (b)page monitoring for the second SIM. The first data transfer process mayhave either an uplink direction or a downlink direction. Data transfersof the first data transfer process may occur only outside the temporalintervals of the sequence. The page monitoring for the second SIM may beperformed during (e.g., only during) the temporal intervals of thesequence.

In some embodiments, the processing element may be further configured todirect the radio subsystem to transmit a selection indicator to thefirst and second base stations prior to said page monitoring for thesecond SIM. The selection indicator may indicate a selected one of thefirst and second base stations that is to be in communication with thefirst RF chain during said controlling the first RF chain to support thefirst data transfer process and the page monitoring. (For example, theselected base station may support the first data transfer process as aleg of the dual connectivity of the UE device with the first wirelessnetwork.)

In some embodiments, the processing element may be further configuredto: in the DC state of the first SIM and the idle state of the secondSIM, control a second RF chain of the radio subsystem to support asecond data transfer process for the first SIM and said page monitoringfor the second SIM, wherein data transfers of the second data transferprocess occur only outside the temporal intervals of the sequence.

In some embodiments, the processing element may be further configured todirect the radio subsystem to transmit a selection indicator to thefirst and second base stations, where the selection indicator indicatesthat both the first and second RF chains are subjected (or, to besubjected) to page monitoring. (For example, the first and second basestations may be support first and second legs of the dual connectivityof the UE device with the first wireless network.)

The first and second base stations may conform to the same or differentradio access technologies.

In some embodiments, the page scheduling information includes aDiscontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle and/or an interruption time, wherethe interruption time indicates a length of each of said temporalintervals.

In some embodiments, said directing the radio subsystem to transmit theselection indicator is performed in response to determining that thefirst SIM is entering or has entered a dual connectivity (DC) state andthat the second SIM is entering or has entered an idle state.

Recall now the base station 700 of FIG. 7. In some embodiments, theprocessing element 710 may be configured to receive page schedulinginformation and a node indicator from a user equipment (UE) device. TheUE device may include a plurality of SIMs, e.g., as variously describedabove. The page scheduling information may indicate a sequence (e.g., aperiodic sequence) of temporal intervals associated with UE paging on analien wireless network, i.e., a network different from the firstwireless network. The node indicator may indicate a selected one of twodual connectivity nodes associated with the UE device.

In response to determining that the wireless base station is serving asthe selected dual connectivity node, the processing element 710 may befurther configured to perform (or direct) a data transfer process forthe UE device. The data transfer process may have an uplink direction ora downlink direction. The data transfers of the data transfer processmay be scheduled only outside the temporal intervals of the sequence.

In some embodiments, the two dual connectivity nodes include a masternode belonging to a first radio access technology and a secondary nodebelonging to a second radio access technology, which is the same as ordifferent from the first radio access technology.

In some embodiments, the processing element 710 may be furtherconfigured to schedule uplink and/or downlink resources for a second UEdevice during one or more of the temporal intervals.

In some embodiments, a wireless base station (for use in a firstwireless network) may include: a radio subsystem for performing wirelesscommunication; a processing element operatively coupled to the radiosubsystem. The processing element may be configured to: (a) receive pagescheduling information and a node indicator from a user equipment (UE)device, where the page scheduling information indicates a sequence(e.g., a periodic sequence) of temporal intervals associated with UEpaging on an alien wireless network different from the first wirelessnetwork, where the node indicator indicates a selected one of two dualconnectivity nodes associated with the UE device; and (b) in response todetermining that the wireless base station is serving as the selecteddual connectivity node, perform a data transfer process for the UEdevice. The data transfer process may have an uplink direction or adownlink direction. The data transfers of the data transfer process maybe scheduled only outside the temporal intervals of the sequence.

In some embodiments, the two dual connectivity nodes include a masternode belonging to a first radio access technology and a secondary nodebelonging to a second radio access technology, which is the same as ordifferent from the first radio access technology.

In some embodiments, the processing element is further configured toschedule uplink and/or downlink resources for a second UE device duringone or more of the temporal intervals.

FIGS. 9 and 10—MCG and SCG Handling for EN-DC SIM

FIG. 9 illustrates one embodiment of a multi-SIM user equipment (UE) 900for MCG and SCG handling when one of the SIMs is in an EN-DC state. (MCGis an acronym for master cell group; SCG is an acronym for secondarycell group. The MCG may be a group of one or more cells hosted by a“master” base station, and the SCG may be a group of one or more cellshosted by a “secondary” base station. In EN-DC, the master base stationmay be an LTE eNB, and the secondary base station may be a gNB of 5GNR.) This embodiment may be described as a “single tune-away”embodiment.

UE 900 may include a first SIM 902 and a second SIM 904, e.g., asvariously described above. UE 900 may also include a first transceiver(TxRx1) 910 and a second transceiver (TxRx2) 912. Each transceiver mayinclude a receiver chain and/or a transmitter chain. Each transceivermay be configured to rapidly change a frequency of tuning. In someembodiments, each transceiver may also be configured to rapidly changedirection from transmit to receive, or vice versa.

A processor of the UE 900, operating with respect to an EN-DC connectedstate 906 of the first SIM 902, may direct the first transceiver 910 totransfer data according to a first wireless communication standard (suchas LTE) and the second transceiver 912 to transfer data according to asecond wireless communication standard (such as 5G NR. The firsttransceiver 910 may communicate signals with a base station conformingto the first wireless communication standard (e.g., an LTE base station,commonly referred to as an eNB) in the positively-sloped cross hatchregions. The second transceiver 910 may communicate signals with a basestation conforming to the second wireless communication standard (e.g.,a 5G NR base station, commonly referred to as a gNB) in thenegatively-sloped cross hatch region 916.

As indicated at 909, the processor, also operating with respect to theidle state 908 of the second SIM 904, may direct a selected one of thetransceivers to monitor paging for the second SIM, e.g., using 5G NR orany other radio access technology (RAT). In FIG. 9, the firsttransceiver 910 has been selected. The tune-away gaps 914 (shown insolid black) are periods of time where the page monitoring may beperformed, and perhaps also where measurement(s) may be performed, asdescribed above. The non-selected transceiver may be unaffected by thetune-away gaps.

Transceiver selection for tune-away gaps may be based on factors suchas: frequency and identity of the connected mode RAT, and frequency andidentity of the IDLE Mode RAT (like IntraFrequency); impact to ongoingdata transfer; and C-DRX gaps of the two connected mode RATs. (DRX is anacronym for Discontinuous Reception Cycle. C-DRX is an acronym forConnected Mode DRX.)

FIG. 10 illustrates another embodiment of a multi-SIM user equipment(UE) 1000 for MCG and SCG handling when one of the SIMs is in an EN-DCstate. (MCG is an acronym for master cell group; SCG is an acronym forsecondary cell group.) This embodiment may be described as a “dualtune-away” embodiment.

UE 1000 may include a first SIM 1002 and a second SIM 1004, e.g., asvariously described above. The first SIM may be associated with (e.g.,subscribed to) a first carrier network. The second SIM may be associatedwith a second carrier (e.g., subscribed to) a second carrier network. UE1000 may also include a first transceiver (TxRx1) 1010 and a secondtransceiver (TxRx2) 1012. Each transceiver may include a receiver chainand/or a transmitter chain. Each transceiver may be configured torapidly change a frequency of tuning. In some embodiments, eachtransceiver may also be configured to rapidly change direction fromtransmit to receive, or vice versa.

A processor of the UE 1000, operating with respect to an EN-DC connectedstate 1006 of the first SIM 1002, may direct the first transceiver 1010to perform a first data transfer process according to a first wirelesscommunication standard (such as LTE) and the second transceiver 1012 toperform a second data transfer process according to a second wirelesscommunication standard (such as 5G NR). The first transceiver 1010 maysupport the first data transfer by communicating signals with a firstbase station (e.g., an eNB of LTE) of the first carrier network, asindicated by the positively sloped cross hatch regions. The secondtransceiver 1010 may support the second data transfer by communicatingsignals with a second base station (e.g., a gNB of 5G NR) of the firstcarrier network, as indicated by the negatively sloped cross hatchregions. The first and second data transfer processes may be the LTE andNR legs of a dual connection of the UE device with the first and secondbase stations.

As indicated at 1009, the processor, also operating with respect to theidle state 1008 of the second SIM 1004, may direct both transceivers totemporarily tune away (e.g., from their present operating frequencies tothe frequencies of cells of the second carrier network) according to thepage schedule associated with the second carrier network, associatedwith the second SIM, in order to support page monitoring for the secondSIM. (The page monitoring may be performed according to 5G NR or anyother Radio Access Technology.) The tune-away gaps 1014A and 1014B(shown in solid black) are periods of time where the page monitoringand/or measurement(s) may be performed, e.g., as variously describedabove. In some embodiments, each of the gaps 1014A may coincide in timewith a corresponding one of the gaps 1014B.

UL Scheduling for Split Bearer with EN-DC and Multi-SIM UE

Suppose SIM-1 is in connected mode in EN-DC configuration, and a splitbearer is configured. SIM-2 is in IDLE mode and monitoring pagingoccasions and performing measurements as per the configured DRX cycle.

During a paging occasion of SIM-2, if RF from the NR leg or LTE leg ofSIM-1 is tuned away to SIM-2, then there will be an impact to theongoing data transfer of SIM-1 on the victim leg. If SIM-1 is running ahigh throughput application, then the tune away gaps will have a visibleperformance impact. There has not previously been a way to schedule thedata away from the victim leg to the non-impacted leg (of the splitbearer) in UL and DL.

In some embodiments, the UE and the network may avoid theabove-described problems by applying the following methodology.

The network of SIM-1 (in EN-DC configuration) may be provided with thepaging pattern of SIM-2. Furthermore, the network of SIM-1 may beinformed regarding which dual connectivity leg is subject to beinginterrupted (due to paging-related tune-away events), to monitor forpages targeting SIM-2.

In response to determining that the UE is entering an idle mode of SIM-2while in a dual connectivity mode of SIM-1, the network of SIM-1 mayallocate a larger number of UL grants (or UL grants per unit time) tothe non-victim leg such that the UE can reroute UL data from the victimleg to the non-victim leg, and thus, avoid loss of uplink throughput dueto the tune-away events. Likewise, the network of SIM-1 can minimize thenegative impact on the UE's downlink dataflow by scheduling a largeramount of DL resources for the UE on the non-victim leg (than it wouldhave if there were no paging-related tune away events on either leg),and stop transmission on victim leg during PO gaps. (PO is an acronymfor Paging Occasion.)

This methodology may achieve certain benefits, such as the following.The network (NW) of SIM-1 and the UE can make efficient schedulingdecisions, to reduce throughput impact/degradation as the NW knows theUE's preference regarding which RF chain will be tuned away from EN-DCconnection to monitor IDLE mode paging of the other SIM.

Recall now the user equipment 600 of FIG. 6. In some embodiments, theradio subsystem 605 may include a plurality of RF chains. Furthermore,in response to determining that the first SIM 620 is entering or hasentered a dual connectivity (DC) state and that the second SIM 625 isentering or has entered an idle state, the processing element 610 may:select one of the RF chains to be subjected to monitoring for pagesassociated with the second SIM; and direct the radio subsystem totransmit page scheduling information and node selection information to afirst wireless network corresponding to the first SIM. (The selectionrepresented by the selection information may be based, e.g., on one ormore of the criteria discussed above.) A dual connectivity state is astate of connection to two base stations of a wireless network.

The page scheduling information may indicate a sequence (e.g., aperiodic sequence) of temporal intervals for said monitoring for pagesfrom a second wireless network corresponding to the second SIM. The nodeselection information may indicate a selection of one of two dualconnectivity nodes associated with the DC state of the first SIM. Theselected dual connectivity node is the node that is to be incommunication with the selected RF chain during the DC state of thefirst SIM and at least a portion of the idle state of the second SIM.

In some embodiments, the two dual connectivity nodes may include amaster node of the first wireless network and a secondary node of thefirst wireless network. The master node may conform to a first radioaccess technology, and the secondary node corresponding to a secondradio access technology which is the same as or different from the firstradio access technology. For example, the master node may be an LTE eNBwhile the secondary node may be a gNB of 5G NR.

In some embodiments, the processing element may be further configured tocontrol the selected RF chain to support a data transfer process for thefirst SIM (e.g., controlled by the first SIM) and said monitoring forpages from the second wireless network for the second SIM. The datatransfer process has an uplink direction or a downlink direction. Thedata transfers of the data transfer process may be performed onlyoutside the temporal intervals of the sequence. The action of monitoringfor pages may be constrained to occur only within the temporal intervalsof the sequence.

In some embodiments, a wireless user equipment (UE) device may include:a radio subsystem for performing wireless communication, where the radiosubsystem includes a plurality of RF chains; a processing elementoperatively coupled to the radio subsystem; and a plurality ofsubscriber identity modules (SIMs). Each of the subscriber identitymodules may support access to a corresponding wireless network. Theprocessing element may be configured to: in response to determining thata first of the SIMs is entering or has entered a dual connectivity (DC)state and that a second of the SIMs is entering or has entered an idlestate, (a) select one of the RF chains to be subjected to monitoring forpages associated with the second SIM, and (b) direct the radio subsystemto transmit page scheduling information and node selection informationto a first wireless network corresponding to the first SIM. The pagescheduling information may indicate a sequence (e.g., a periodicsequence) of temporal intervals for said monitoring for pages from thesecond wireless network corresponding the second SIM. The node selectioninformation may indicate a selection of one of two dual connectivitynodes associated with the DC state of the first SIM. The selected dualconnectivity node is to be in communication with the selected RF chainduring the dual connectivity state of the first SIM and at least aportion of the idle state of the second SIM.

In some embodiments, the two dual connectivity nodes include a masternode of the first wireless network and a secondary node of the firstwireless network.

In some embodiments, the master node conforms to a first radio accesstechnology (RAT) and the secondary node corresponding to a second radioaccess technology the same as or different from the first radio accesstechnology. For example, the first RAT may be LTE while the second RATis 5G NR.

In some embodiments, the processing element is further configured to:control the selected RF chain to support a data transfer process for thefirst SIM and said monitoring for pages from the second wireless networkfor the second SIM. The data transfer process may have an uplinkdirection or a downlink direction. The data transfers of the datatransfer process may be performed only outside the temporal intervals ofthe sequence. Said monitoring for pages may occur only within thetemporal intervals of the sequence.

In some embodiments, a network node 1100 may be configured as shown inFIG. 11. The network node may belong to a first wireless network (e.g.,a carrier network). The network node may include: an interface 1110configured to communicate with a first base station 1120 of the firstwireless network; an interface 1115 configured to communicate with asecond base station 1125 of the first wireless network; and a processingelement 1130 coupled to the interfaces. (In an alternative embodiment,the network node may include a single interface that is configured tocommunicate with the first and second base stations using a scheme ofmultiple access to a communication medium that connects the network modeto the base stations. For example, the interface may communicate withthe base stations in a time multiplexed manner.) The first base stationmay be configured to wirelessly communicate according to a first radioaccess technology (such as LTE or 5G NR), and the second base stationmay be configured to wirelessly communicate according to a second radioaccess technology (such as LTE or 5G NR). For example, in oneembodiment, the first base station is an eNB conforming to the LTEstandard while the second base station is a gNB conforming to the 5G NRstandard. In another embodiment, the first and second base stations aregNBs.

The processing element 1130 may be configured to receive page schedulinginformation and node selection information originating from a wirelessuser equipment (UE) device, e.g., via the interface 1110 or theinterface 1115. The page scheduling information may indicate a sequence(e.g., a periodic sequence) of temporal intervals. (The sequence oftemporal intervals may correspond to paging opportunities of a secondwireless network, i.e., a different carrier network. A base station ofthe second wireless network may be configured to send pages to the UEdevice only during the temporal intervals. Thus, the UE device may beconfigured to monitor for pages from the second wireless number duringthe temporal intervals.) The node selection information may indicate aselection of either the base station 1120 or the base station 1125.

In response to receiving the page scheduling information and the nodeselection information, the processing element 1130 may be configured todirect the selected base station to avoid the scheduling ofcommunication resources for the UE device during the temporal intervalsof the sequence, and direct a non-selected one of the first and secondbase stations to increase a rate of scheduling of communicationresources for the UE device. These directions may be communicated to theselected and non-selected base stations, e.g., via the interfaces 1110and 1115.

In some embodiments, the network node 1100 may also include a thirdinterface (not shown), which is configured to receive a user dataflowtargeted for the UE device. The processing element may be furtherconfigured to send a first portion of the user dataflow to the selectedbase station and send a second portion of the user dataflow to thenon-selected base station. In response to receiving the page schedulinginformation and the node selection information, the processing elementmay be further configured to decrease the first portion of the userdataflow to the selected base station and increase the second portion ofthe user dataflow to the non-selected base station. The selected andnon-selected base stations wirelessly transmit their respective portionsof the user dataflow to the UE device.

In some embodiments, the processing element may be further configured todirect the selected base station to schedule uplink resources for asecond UE device during one or more of the temporal intervals of thesequence.

In some embodiments, a network node in a first wireless network (e.g., acarrier network) may include: a first interface to a first base stationof the first wireless network; a second interface to a second basestation of the first wireless network; and a processing elementconfigured to: receive page scheduling information and node selectioninformation from a user equipment (UE) device, e.g., via the firstinterface or the second interface, wherein the page schedulinginformation indicates a sequence (e.g., a periodic sequence) of temporalintervals. The node selection information may indicate a selection ofeither the first base station or the second base station. In response toreceiving the page scheduling information and the node selectioninformation, the processing element may: direct the selected basestation to avoid scheduling of communication resources for the UE deviceduring the temporal intervals of the sequence; and direct a non-selectedone of the first and second base stations to increase a rate ofscheduling of communication resources for the UE device.

In some embodiments, the network node may also include a third interfaceconfigured to receive a user dataflow targeted for the UE device; andthe processing element may be further configured to send a first portionof the user dataflow to the selected base station and send a secondportion of the user dataflow to the non-selected base station. Inresponse to receiving the page scheduling information and the nodeselection information, the processing element may be further configuredto decrease the first portion of the user dataflow to the selected basestation and increase the second portion of the user dataflow to thenon-selected base station.

In some embodiments, the processing element may be further configured todirect the selected base station to schedule uplink resources for asecond UE device during one or more of the temporal intervals of thesequence.

Reducing Page Resources for Multi-SIM Device

Suppose that a multi-SIM UE device is designed so that only one of theSIMs can be actively connected at any given time. Such a device may bereferred to as a single-active device. A Dual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS)device is an example of a single active device. A single active devicewill not respond to paging if one of the SIMs is in a call. However, thenetwork side may continuously page the UE device, which is a waste ofpaging resources. The mobile originating (MO) side is eventually sent amessage indicating ‘paging unreachable’, which may mislead the MO userto think that the UE device has an issue with coverage.

In some embodiments, the above described problem may be addressed by thefollowing methodology, especially if two or more of the SIMs in themulti-SIM UE device are registered with the same carrier.

The multi-SIM UE device may send information indicating two or more ofthe SIMs in the UE to the network during a registration procedure, e.g.,using non-access stratum (NAS) signaling. The network may bind theseSIMs at the core network (e.g., associate these SIMs with the UE). Ifone of the SIMs is in a call, the network does not page the UE when thenetwork receives an incoming call associated with any of the other SIMs,in order to avoid a waste of paging resources for a UE that will beunresponsive. (The network may reply to the incoming call originatorwith a message indicating ‘user busy’.) Alternatively, the network maystart a ‘wait’ timer to postpone the page, e.g., until the call underthe first SIM is more likely to have been concluded.

In response to an incoming call, the network may cross check todetermine if the ‘device’ is busy instead of determining if the‘subscriber/SIM’ is busy.

Even if the SIMs in the multi-SIM UE device are subscribed to differentcarriers, the above described methodology may be employed if the corenetworks of the different carriers are configured to co-operate.

The above described methodology may save paging resources; improve keyperformance indicators (KPIs) of the network by reducing falsedeclarations of “user unreachable”; and improve user experience.

Recall now the wireless user equipment 600 of FIG. 6. In someembodiments, the first SIM 620 and the second SIM 625 may be registeredto the same wireless network (e.g., carrier network). Furthermore, theprocessing element 610 may be configured to direct the radio subsystemto transmit first SIM information contained in the first SIM 620 andsecond SIM information contained in the second SIM 625 to the wirelessnetwork during a procedure for registering the wireless UE device withthe wireless network. This action of directing the radio system totransmit the first SIM information and second SIM information may beperformed in response to determining that the wireless UE device is asingle active device, e.g., a Dual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS) device. (Thisdetermination may be performed, e.g., when the UE device is powered on.)The first and second SIM information may be transmitted to a networknode (e.g., a node of the network core) via a base station of thewireless network.

In some embodiments, after completing a first call relative to the firstSIM 620, the processing element 610 may be configured to: receive a pagemessage from the wireless network, where the page message indicates thata second call targeting a mobile number of the second SIM is incoming;and in response to receiving the page message, connect to the wirelessnetwork to receive the second call. (The first and second calls may bephone calls.)

In some embodiments, after completing a first call relative to the firstSIM, the processing element 610 may be configured to receive a callattempt notification from the wireless network. The call attemptnotification indicates a second call, which targeted a mobile number ofthe second SIM 625, was attempted during the first call. The processingelement may be further configured to display the call attemptnotification on a display of the wireless UE device. The call attemptnotification may include a phone number of a device that originated thesecond call. A user of the UE device may elect to call the phone number,i.e., the missed second call.

In some embodiments, a wireless user equipment (UE) device may include:a radio subsystem for performing wireless communication; a processingelement operatively coupled to the radio subsystem; and a firstsubscriber identity module (SIM) and a second SIM, where the first SIMand second SIM are registered to the same wireless network. Theprocessing element may be configured to: in response to determining thatthe wireless UE device is a single active device, direct the radiosubsystem to transmit first SIM information contained in the first SIMand second SIM information contained in the second SIM to the wirelessnetwork during a procedure for registering the wireless UE device withthe wireless network.

In some embodiments, the processing element may be further configuredto: after completing a first call relative to the first SIM, receive apage message from the wireless network, wherein the page messageindicates that a second call targeting a mobile number of the second SIMis incoming; and in response to receiving the page message, connect tothe wireless network to receive the second call.

In some embodiments, the processing element may be further configuredto: after completing a first call relative to the first SIM, receive acall attempt notification from the wireless network, where the callattempt notification indicates a second call, which targeted a mobilenumber of the second SIM, was attempted during the first call, anddisplay the call attempt notification on a display of the wireless UEdevice, e.g., as described above.

In some embodiments, a network node 1200 in a wireless network may beconfigured as shown in FIG. 12. The network node may include: aninterface 1210 configured to communicate with one or more base stations1220 of the wireless network; and a processing element 1230 operativelycoupled to the interface 1210. The interface may communicate over awired medium and/or a wireless medium, any of a variety of communicationprotocols. (In one embodiment, the interface is configured tocommunicate using an Internet Protocol.) The network node may alsoinclude one or more additional interfaces coupled to one or more othernodes of the wireless network, to the Internet, to the PSTN, or to anycombination of the foregoing. The network node may be configured toreceive in-coming calls and/or make outgoing calls on behalf of UEdevices via the one or more additional interfaces.

The processing element 1230 may be configured to: receive first SIMinformation and the second SIM information from a multi-SIM userequipment (UE) device, e.g., via the interface 1210. In response toreceiving the first SIM information and the second SIM information, theprocessing element may create a data record for the multi-SIM UE device.The data record may be linked to the first SIM information and thesecond SIM information. In response to establishing a first call to orfrom a first mobile number associated with the first SIM information,the processing element may set the data record to a busy state. Inresponse to receiving, while the data record is in the busy state, asecond call that targets a second mobile number associated with thesecond SIM information, the processing element may send a responsemessage to an originating device of the second call, and refrain frompaging the second mobile number at least for a period of time (e.g., apredetermined amount of time). The response message may indicate thatthe multi-SIM UE device (or a user of the multi-SIM UE device) is busy.

In some embodiments, the processing element may be configured to start await timer in response to receiving the second call, and delay pageattempts to the second mobile number until the wait timer has expired.

In some embodiments, in response to determining that the period of timehas elapsed (e.g., that the wait timer has expired), the processingelement 1230 may determine whether the data record is still in a busystate. In response to determining that the data record is not in a busystate, the processing element may send one or more page messagesdirected to the second mobile number of the UE device via the interface1210. If the UE device responds to the one or more page messages, theprocessing element may establish the second call between the UE deviceand the originating device of the second call. If the UE device does notrespond to the one or more page messages, the processing element maysend a message to the originating device, indicating that the UE deviceis not responsive. In response to determining that the data record isstill in the busy state, the processing element may: send a message tothe originating device of the second call, indicating that UE device isstill busy.

In some embodiments, the processing element may be further configuredto: in response to determining that the first call has been terminated,reset the data record to a free state; and in response to receivinganother call to the second mobile number while the data record is in thefree state, paging the second mobile number.

In some embodiments, a network node in a wireless network may include:an interface configured to communication with a base station of thewireless network; a processing element operatively coupled to theinterface. The processing element may be configured to: receive firstSIM information and the second SIM information from a multi-SIM userequipment (UE) device, e.g., via the interface; and create a data recordfor the multi-SIM UE device, wherein the data record is linked to thefirst SIM information and the second SIM information. In response toestablishing a first call to or from a first mobile number associatedwith the first SIM information, the processing element may set the datarecord to a busy state. In response to receiving, while the data recordis in the busy state, a second call that targets a second mobile numberassociated with the second SIM information, the processing element maysend a response message to an originating device of the second call, andrefrain from paging the second mobile number at least for a period oftime. The response message may indicate that the multi-SIM UE device (ora user of the multi-SIM UE device) is busy.

In some embodiments, the processing element may be further configuredto: start a wait timer in response to receiving the second call, anddelay page attempts to the second mobile number until the wait timer hasexpired.

In some embodiments, the processing element may be further configuredto: in response to determining that the first call has been terminated,reset the data record to a free state; and in response to receiving athird call to the second mobile number while the data record is in thefree state, paging the second mobile number.

FIG. 13: Reconfiguring a Multi-SIM UE to Improve Radio Re-TuneEfficiency

In some embodiments, a method 1300 for operating a network node in afirst wireless network (e.g., a carrier network) may include theoperations shown in FIG. 13. (The method 1300 may also include anysubset of the features disclosed above in connection with FIGS. 1-12, orbelow in connection with the following Figures.) The network node may bea node in the core of the first wireless network. The network node mayinclude: an interface configured to communicate with one or more basestations of the first wireless network; and a processing elementoperatively coupled to the interface. The processing element may beconfigured to perform the operations of the method.

At 1310, the processing element may receive, via the interface, anindication that a user equipment (UE) device has at least a firstsubscriber identity module (SIM) and a second SIM, where the firstwireless network is associated with the first SIM. The UE device maytransmit the indication to the network node via one of the base stationsof the first wireless network.

At 1315, the processing element may receive, via the interface, aserving frequency F₂ (e.g., a serving frequency of a current cell) of asecond wireless network associated with the second SIM. The secondwireless network may be different from the first wireless network. (Thefirst and second SIMs may be subscribed to different carriers.) The UEdevice may transmit the serving frequency F₂ to the network node via oneof the base stations of the first wireless network. (In an alternativeembodiment, the UE device may transmit the server frequency F₂ to thenetwork node via a base station of the second wireless network. A corenode in the second wireless network may forward the server frequency F₂to the presently discussed network node.) In some embodiments, the abovedescribed indication and the serving frequency F₂ are transmitted by theUE device as parts of a single message.

At 1320, the processing element may select a serving frequency F₁ of thefirst wireless network for use by the UE device, based at least in parton the serving frequency of the second wireless network. The servingfrequency F₁ of the first wireless network may be selected from a setS_(N1) of available frequencies of the first wireless network in orderto increase (or to maximize) a re-tune efficiency of radio hardware(e.g., an RF chain) in the UE device, e.g., an efficiency of re-tuningfrom frequency f∈S_(N1) to F₂. In some embodiments, re-tune efficiencymay be interpreted as the inverse of the time required by the radiohardware to re-tune from one frequency to another. Re-tune efficiencymay depend on the values of the starting frequency and destinationfrequency of the re-tune. Retune efficiency may be maximized if thefrequency F₁ and F₂ are same or if F₁ and F₂ are in same band. There maybe a need to load appropriate calibration information when RF has toretune to another frequency, and that can be avoided if calibrationinformation is the same within each band and the two SIMs are assignedto frequencies in same band. Retune efficiency may also depend onwhether there is a band conflict in receive operations on the two SIMsor there is a band conflict on transmission by first SIM over receptionof other SIM. This may be especially important, e.g., for a DR-DSDSdevice. (DR-DSDS is an acronym for “Dual Receive-Dual SIM DualStandby”.)

At 1325, the processing element may transmit, via the interface, areconfiguration message to the UE device, wherein the reconfigurationmessage includes the selected serving frequency F₁ of the first wirelessnetwork. The reconfiguration message may include an instruction for theUE device to tune the radio hardware (e.g., RF chain) to the selectedserving frequency for a connected-state data transfer of the first SIM.

In some embodiments, the method 1300 may also include transmitting, viathe interface, a configuration message to a first of the one or morebase stations, e.g., a base station that is to take the role of aserving cell for the first SIM of the UE device. The configurationmessage may be an instruction indicating that the first base stationshould tune an RF chain of the first base station to the selectedfrequency F₁ in order to support the connected-state data transfer ofthe first SIM. The UE device may periodically tune away from F₁ to F₂according to a paging schedule configured for the second SIM relative tothe second wireless network. As variously described above, the pagingschedule may indicate a sequence of temporal intervals used by the UEdevice to monitor for paging from the second wireless network. At thestart of each of the temporal intervals the UE device may: re-tune oneof its RF chains from F₁ to F₂, thus interrupting the connected-statedata transfer; and re-tune back to F₁ at the end of the temporalinterval, to resume the connected-state data transfer.

The serving frequency F₂ of the second wireless network may be receivedusing any of a variety of protocols. For example, in some embodiments,the serving frequency is received using non-access stratum (NAS)signaling. In other embodiments, the serving frequency F₂ is receivedusing access stratum (AS) signaling.

FIG. 14: Reconfiguration of a Multi-SIM UE to Decrease Re-Tuning Events

In some embodiments, a method 1400 for operating a wireless userequipment (UE) device may include the operations shown in FIG. 14. (Themethod 1400 may also include any subset of the features disclosed abovein connection with FIGS. 1-13, or below in connection with the followingFigures.) The UE device may include: a radio subsystem for performingwireless communication; a processing element operatively coupled to theradio subsystem; and a plurality of subscriber identity modules (SIMs).Each of the subscriber identity modules may support access to acorresponding wireless network. (In some embodiments, the UE device mayinclude any subset of the features described above, e.g., in connectionwith FIG. 4 and/or FIG. 6.) The processing element may be configured toperform the operations of method 1400. The processing element mayperform receiving and/or transmitting operations using the radiosubsystem, e.g., by receiving baseband signals from and/or supplyingbaseband signals to the radio subsystem, and by asserting controlsignals to control the state and functionality of the radio subsystem.

At 1410, the processing element may receive a reconfiguration messagefrom a first wireless network corresponding to a first of the SIMs.

At 1415, in response to receiving the reconfiguration message, theprocessing element may reconfigure a serving cell frequency for a dataconnection of the first SIM with the first wireless network, to decreaseor eliminate frequency re-tuning events on an RF chain that supportsboth the data connection of the first SIM and monitoring of pages of asecond wireless network associated with a second of the SIMs.

In some embodiments, the serving cell frequency for the data connectionmay be reconfigured from a current frequency to a frequency indicated bythe reconfiguration message.

In some embodiments, the UE device may be a Dual Receive-Dual SIM DualStandby (DR-DSDS) device. In other embodiments, the UE device may be aSingle Receiver-Dual SIM Dual Standby (SR-DSDS) device.

In some embodiments, the frequency indicated by the reconfigurationmessage may be a serving cell frequency of the second wireless network.

In some embodiments, the frequency indicated by the reconfigurationmessage may have a property that a time required for tuning away the RFchain from the indicated frequency to a second frequency used for saidmonitoring is smaller than a time required for tuning away the RF chainfrom the current frequency to the second frequency.

In some embodiments, the processing element may be configured to directa transmission of one or more serving frequencies of the second wirelessnetwork, associated with the second SIM, to the first wireless network.

As an example of method 1400, suppose that the radio subsystem includestwo receivers but only one transmitter; the first SIM (SIM-1) isinitially tuned to frequency F₁; the second SIM (SIM-2) is tuned to F₂;and, in a dual-receive mode of operation, both SIMs are able tosimultaneously receive from the two respective networks, i.e. noconflict exists. However, at a later time, SIM-1 is handed over to afrequency F₃, and F₃ conflicts with F₂. Then the UE cannotsimultaneously receive on the two receivers mapped to the two respectiveSIMs, unless the frequency of one of them is changed to avoid conflictscenarios. Thus, in this situation, if the network (NW) reconfiguresSIM-1's frequency from F₃ to F₄, where F₄ does not conflict with F₂,then the two SIMs may again receive in parallel on the tworeceivers—SIM-1 being tuned to F₄ and SIM-2 being tuned to F₂. Afterthis frequency reconfiguration, there may be no need to tune away orretune for either of the two SIMs. The method 1400 may be especiallyuseful when the UE device is a DR-DSDS device.

In some embodiments, retuning may be avoided (although, there may stillbe a gap in reception of SIM-1), e.g., when an RF chain is configured orreconfigured to receive paging (and support measurement) for SIM-2 onthe same frequency as SIM-1's data connection to the first wirelessnetwork.

FIGS. 15A & 15B—Autonomous Denial

In some embodiments, a method 1500 for operating a wireless userequipment (UE) device may include the operations shown in FIG. 15A. (Themethod 1500 may also include any subset of the features disclosed abovein connection with FIGS. 1-14, or below in connection with the followingFigures.) The wireless UE device may include: a radio subsystem forperforming wireless communication; a processing element operativelycoupled to the radio subsystem; and a plurality of subscriber identitymodules (SIMs). Each of the subscriber identity modules may supportaccess to a corresponding wireless network. A first of the SIMs may beassociated with a first wireless network, and a second of the SIMs maybe associated with a second wireless network different from the firstwireless network. (In some embodiments, the UE device may include anysubset of the features described above in connection with FIG. 4 and/orFIG. 6.) The processing element may be configured to perform theoperations of method 1500.

At 1510, the processing element may receive a configuration message fromthe first wireless network, where the configuration message includes anindication of a denial probability threshold (or a maximum denialprobability).

At 1515, in response to receiving the configuration message, theprocessing element may control a percentage of time an RF chain of theradio subsystem is tuned away from a first frequency, corresponding to aconnection with the first wireless network, to a second frequency of thesecond wireless network. The action of controlling the time percentagemay be based on (e.g., limited by) the denial probability threshold. Theconnection with first wireless network may be associated with aconnected state of the first SIM. As part of said controlling, theprocessing element may autonomously determine which scheduled transfersof the connection will be denied, subject to the denial probabilitythreshold. For example, by deciding to tune away the RF chain from thefirst frequency, the processing element may be denying a scheduleduplink transfer (of the connection) from the first SIM, or may bedenying a scheduled downlink transfer (of the connection) targeted forthe first SIM. The processing element may limit the percentage of timethe RF chain is tuned away from the first frequency so that thepercentage is no more than the denial probability threshold. (Whereverthe non-strict inequality ≤ is mentioned in the present disclosure, itshould be understood that alternative embodiments may utilize the strictinequality <. Similarly, wherever the non-strict inequality ≥ ismentioned, alternative embodiments may utilize the strict inequality >.)

In some embodiments, the processing element may be configured to performsaid controlling so that a probability of forfeited grants of uplinkresources with respect to said connection with the first wirelessnetwork is no more than the denial probability threshold.

In some embodiments, the processing element may be configured to performsaid controlling so that a probability of missed downlink transmissionswith respect to said connection with the first wireless network is nomore than the denial probability threshold.

In some embodiments, the processing element may be configured to directthe radio subsystem to transmit a device type indication to the firstwireless network (e.g., via a base station of the first wirelessnetwork). The device type indication may indicate that the UE device hasa plurality of SIMs. The first wireless network may transmit theconfiguration message to the UE device in response to receiving thedevice type indication.

In some embodiments, the configuration message may be received using aRadio Resource Control (RRC) protocol.

In some embodiments, an autonomous denial procedure such as method 1500may provide benefits such as the following. It may enable the network(e.g., NW2 of FIG. 15B) to control the scheduling loss probability dueto multi-SIM UE devices. Otherwise, the network (NW) may have little orno knowledge of the scheduling loss probability. The autonomous denialprocedure may enable the NW to more accurately evaluate the NW/UEscheduling performance. For example, if the autonomous denial procedurefor multi-SIM UEs is configured with a 1% denial probability limit, andif the total probability of scheduling loss is 21%, the NW may excludethe probability contribution of the multi-SIM UEs, and adjust thescheduling loss probability to 20%, which may be further considered forNW deployment optimization.

In some embodiments of an autonomous denial procedure, the NW mayprovide an autonomous denial configuration to the UE via the SIM-1connection. For example, the UE may be allowed to deny 2 scheduledtransmission opportunities within 200 ms (corresponding to a denialprobability limit of 1%, assuming a scheduled transmission opportunityduration of 1 ms). When the NW evaluates the UE scheduling performance,the NW may exclude the 1% contribution of multi-SIM UEs from thestatistics.

FIG. 15B illustrates an autonomous denial procedure according to someembodiments. A UE device 1550 may include a first SIM (SIM1) and asecond SIM (SIM2). The first SIM may be associated with a first network(NW1), and the second SIM may be associated with a second network (NW2).For example, the first and second SIMs may be subscribed to differentcarrier networks. The first SIM may be in an idle state 1555, and thesecond SIM may be in a connected state 1560. The second SIM mayestablish a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection 1565 with the secondnetwork. The second network may receive UE assistance information 1570from the second SIM (or, from a processing element of the UE deviceoperating on behalf of the second SIM). The UE assistance informationmay include an indication that the UE device is a multi-SIM device,i.e., a device having more than one SIM. (In some embodiments, thesecond network may operate without any further information regarding theSIMs in the UE device.)

In response to the UE assistance information, the second network (NW2)may send RRC configuration information 1575, enabling the UE device (orthe second SIM) to configure itself for autonomous denial of scheduleddata transfers under the second SIM. The RRC configuration informationmay include a denial probability threshold (or limit). The denialprobability threshold may be expressed in any of various forms, e.g., interms of a validity period 1580 and a denial time limit. For example, avalidity period of 200 ms and a denial time limit of 2 ms wouldcorrespond to a denial probability threshold of 1%=2/200. The denialtime limit may limit the amount of time that an RF chain of the UEdevice is tuned away from the connection of the second SIM to serviceidle mode activity 1585 (such as paging, measurement, and systeminformation decode) for the first SIM. Thus, the number of scheduledtransfers of the second SIM's connection that are denied by the secondSIM is limited. As illustrated in FIG. 15B, two scheduled subframes (S1and S2) are denied, as indicated by the X marks. Thus, the secondnetwork may control the negative impact on the second SIMs connection,via the denial probability threshold.

FIG. 16—Informing the Network to Improve Scheduling Performance forMulti-SIM UE

In some embodiments, a method 1600 for operating a wireless userequipment (UE) device may include the operations shown in FIG. 16. (Themethod 1600 may also include any subset of the features disclosed abovein connection with FIGS. 1-15, or below in connection with the followingFigures.) The wireless UE device may include: a radio subsystem forperforming wireless communication; a processing element operativelycoupled to the radio subsystem; and a plurality of subscriber identitymodules (SIMs). Each of the subscriber identity modules may supportaccess to a corresponding wireless network, where the SIMs include afirst SIM and a second SIM. (In some embodiments, the UE device mayinclude any subset of the features disclosed above in connection withFIG. 4 and/or FIG. 6.) The processing element may be configured toperform the operations of method 1600.

At 1610, the processing element may select at least one of a first RFchain and a second RF chain of the radio subsystem that is to besubjected to idle mode activity for the second SIM during a dualconnectivity (DC) state of the first SIM, e.g., as variously describedabove.

At 1615, the processing element may direct the radio subsystem totransmit a selection indicator to a first wireless network associatedwith the first SIM. The selection indicator may indicate a selection ofat least one of a master cell group (MCG) and a secondary cell group(SCG) associated with the dual connectivity state of the first SIM. Theselection indicated by the selection indicator may be determined basedon said selecting (i.e., the result of said selecting) at least one ofthe first RF chain and the second RF chain. For example, if theselecting operation 1610 selects the first RF chain, the selectionindicator may indicate the cell group (MCG or SCG) that is associatedwith (or assigned to) the first RF chain. The first wireless network mayinstruct the selected cell group to avoid the scheduling of downlinkand/or uplink resources to the UE device during paging opportunitiesassociated with the idle mode activity of the second SIM.

In some embodiments, the method 1600 may also include directing theradio subsystem to transmit activity pattern information to the firstwireless network. The activity pattern information may indicate asequence (e.g., a periodic sequence) of temporal intervals forperforming said idle mode activity. The idle mode activity may includeone or more of page monitoring, system information block (SIB) decoding,and idle mode measurement. The first wireless network may instruct theselected cell group (MCG and/or SCG) of the dual connectivity state toavoid scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissions of the dualconnectivity state of the first SIM during the temporal intervals.

In some embodiments, the method 1600 may also include directing theradio subsystem to transmit a frequency of a serving cell of a secondwireless network corresponding to the second SIM. The serving cellfrequency of the second wireless network may be transmitted to the firstwireless network, and used, e.g., as variously described above.

In some embodiments, only one of the first RF chain and second RF chainis selected for being subjected to the idle mode activity for the secondSIM. In these embodiments, method 1600 may also include: in the DC stateof the first SIM and an idle state of the second SIM, controlling theselected RF chain to support (a) a first data transfer process for thedual connectivity state of the first SIM and (b) said idle mode activityfor the second SIM. The first data transfer process may have either anuplink direction or a downlink direction.

In some embodiments, the method 1600 may also include: in the DC stateof the first SIM and the idle state of the second SIM, control anon-selected one of the first RF chain and the second RF chain tosupport a second data transfer process for the DC state of the firstSIM, wherein the non-selected RF chain is not subjected to the idle modeactivity of the second SIM while in the DC state of the first SIM andthe idle state of the second SIM. The second data transfer process mayhave the same transfer direction (uplink or downlink) as the first datatransfer process.

In some embodiments, both of the first RF chain and second RF chain areselected for being subjected to the idle mode activity for the secondSIM. In these embodiments, the method 1600 may also include: in the DCstate of the first SIM and the idle state of the second SIM, controllingeach of the first RF chain and the second RF chain to support acorresponding data transfer process for the first SIM and said idle modeactivity for the second SIM.

In some embodiments, the first and second base stations may conform todifferent (or the same) radio access technologies (RATs). For example,in the context of EN-DC (E-UTRA NR Dual Connectivity), one of the basestations may be an LTE base station (eNB) while the other may be a 5G NRbase station (gNB).

In some embodiments, the method 1600 may also include transmitting pagescheduling information to the first wireless network. The pagescheduling information may include any subset of the following: aDiscontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle; a page offset; and an interruptiontime that indicates a length of each of said temporal intervals; or any.In one embodiment, the page scheduling information may include the DRX.In another embodiment, the page scheduling information may include thepage offset. In yet another embodiment, the page scheduling informationmay include the interruption time.

FIG. 17: Call Handling for Multi-SIM UE

In some embodiments, a method 1700 for operating a network node in awireless network may include the operations shown in FIG. 17. (Themethod 1700 may also include any subset of the features disclosed abovein connection with FIGS. 1-16, or below in connection with the followingFigures.) The network node may be a node in the core network of thewireless network. The network node may include: an interface configuredto communicate with one or more base stations of the wireless network;and a processing element operatively coupled to the interface. Theprocessing element may be configured to perform the operations of method1700.

At 1710, the processing element may create a data record for a UE devicehaving a plurality of subscriber identity modules (SIMs). The datarecord may be linked to first SIM information and second SIM informationof the UE device. The first SIM information corresponds to a first SIMof the UE device, and the second SIM information corresponds to a secondSIM of the UE device. The data record may be stored in a memory of thenetwork node.

At 1715, in response to establishing a first call to or from a firstmobile number associated with the first SIM information, the processingelement may set the data record to a busy state. The network node mayinclude a second interface to one or more other nodes of the wirelessnetwork, to the Internet, to the Public Switched Telephone Network(PSTN), or to any combination of the foregoing. The network node mayreceive incoming calls via the second interface, and/or, make outgoingcalls (on behalf of UE devices) via the second interface.

At 1720, the processing element may, in response to receiving, while thedata record is in the busy state, a second call that targets a secondmobile number associated with the second SIM information, refrain frompaging the second mobile number at least for a period of time (e.g., apredetermined duration of time).

In some embodiments, the method 1700 may also include receiving thefirst SIM information and the second SIM information from the userequipment (UE) device via the interface. The UE device may transmit thefirst SIM information and the second SIM information to the network nodevia a currently serving base station of the wireless network.

In some embodiments, the method 1700 may also include: in response toreceiving the second call while the data record is in the busy state,sending a response message to an originating device of the second call.The response message may indicate that the UE device (or a user of theUE device) is busy.

In some embodiments, the method 1700 may also include starting a waittimer in response to receiving the second call, and delay page attemptsto the second mobile number until the wait timer has expired.

In some embodiments, the method 1700 may also include: starting a waittimer in response to receiving the second call; and while the wait timeris running, monitoring for an end of the first call in order to attemptto establish the second call after the end of the first call, and/orsending a response message to an originating device of the second call,indicating that an establishment of the second call is being attempted.

In some embodiments, the method 1700 may also include, in response tothe wait timer expiring before the end of the first call, sendinganother response message to the originating device of the second call,indicating that the UE device (or a user of the UE device) is busy.

In some embodiments, the method 1700 may also include: in response todetermining that the first call has been terminated, reset the datarecord to a free state; and in response to receiving a third call to thesecond mobile number while the data record is in the free state, pagingthe second mobile number.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be realized in any of variousforms. For example, some embodiments may be realized as acomputer-implemented method, a computer-readable memory medium, or adevice. Other embodiments may be realized using one or morecustom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs. Still other embodimentsmay be realized using one or more programmable hardware elements such asFPGAs.

In some embodiments, a device may include: an antenna subsystem; a radiocoupled to the antenna subsystem; and a processing element operablycoupled to the radio, where the device is configured to implement any orall parts of any of the preceding embodiments.

In other embodiments, an apparatus may include means for performing anyor all of the elements of any of the preceding embodiments.

In yet other embodiments, an apparatus may include a processing elementconfigured to cause a device to perform any or all of the elements ofany of the preceding embodiments.

In some embodiments, a device (e.g., a UE 106) may be configured toinclude a processor (or a set of processors) and a memory medium, wherethe memory medium stores program instructions, where the processor isconfigured to read and execute the program instructions from the memorymedium, where the program instructions are executable to implement anyof the various method embodiments described herein (or, any combinationof the method embodiments described herein, or, any subset of any of themethod embodiments described herein, or, any combination of suchsubsets). The device may be realized in any of various forms.

Any of the methods described herein for operating a user equipment (UE)in communication with a base station may be the basis of a correspondingmethod for operating a base station, by interpreting each message/signalX received by the UE in the downlink as a message/signal X transmittedby the base station, and each message/signal Y transmitted in the uplinkby the UE as a message/signal Y received by the base station.

It is well understood that the use of personally identifiableinformation should follow privacy policies and practices that aregenerally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmentalrequirements for maintaining the privacy of users. In particular,personally identifiable information data should be managed and handledso as to minimize risks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use,and the nature of authorized use should be clearly indicated to users.

Although the embodiments above have been described in considerabledetail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent tothose skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated.It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace allsuch variations and modifications.

We claim:
 1. A wireless user equipment (UE) device comprising: a radiosubsystem for performing wireless communication; a processing elementoperatively coupled to the radio subsystem; a plurality of subscriberidentity modules (SIMs), wherein each of the subscriber identity modulessupports access to a corresponding wireless network; wherein theprocessing element is configured to: receive a reconfiguration messagefrom a first wireless network corresponding to a first SIM of theplurality of SIMS; and in response to receiving the reconfigurationmessage, reconfigure a serving cell frequency for a data connection ofthe first SIM of the plurality of SIMs with the first wireless network,to decrease or eliminate frequency re-tuning events on an RF chain thatsupports both the data connection of the first SIM and monitoring pagingof a second wireless network associated with a second SIM of theplurality of SIMS.
 2. The wireless UE device of claim 1, wherein theserving cell frequency for the data connection is reconfigured from acurrent frequency to a frequency indicated by the reconfigurationmessage, wherein the UE device is a Dual Receive Dual SIM Dual Standbydevice.
 3. The wireless UE device of claim 2, wherein the frequencyindicated by the reconfiguration message is a serving cell frequency ofthe second wireless network.
 4. The wireless UE device of claim 2,wherein the frequency indicated by the reconfiguration message has aproperty that a time required for tuning away the RF chain from thefrequency indicated by the reconfiguration message to a second frequencyused for said monitoring is smaller than a time required for tuning awaythe RF chain from the current frequency to the second frequency.
 5. Thewireless UE device of claim 1, wherein the processing element isconfigured to: direct a transmission of one or more serving frequenciesof the second wireless network associated with the second SIM, to thefirst wireless network.
 6. An apparatus comprising a processing elementconfigured to cause a user equipment (UE) device to perform operations,wherein the UE device includes a plurality of subscriber identitymodules (SIMs), wherein each of the subscriber identity modules supportsaccess to a corresponding wireless network, wherein the operationsinclude: decoding a reconfiguration message from a first wirelessnetwork corresponding to a first SIM of the plurality of SIMs; and inresponse to decoding the reconfiguration message, reconfiguring aserving cell frequency for a data connection of the first SIM of theplurality of SIMs with the first wireless network, to decrease oreliminate frequency re-tuning events on an RF chain that supports boththe data connection of the first SIM and monitoring paging of a secondwireless network associated with a second SIM of the plurality of SIMS.7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the serving cell frequency for thedata connection is reconfigured from a current frequency to a frequencyindicated by the reconfiguration message, wherein the UE device is aDual Receive Dual SIM Dual Standby device.
 8. The apparatus of claim 7,wherein the frequency indicated by the reconfiguration message is aserving cell frequency of the second wireless network.
 9. The apparatusof claim 7, wherein the frequency indicated by the reconfigurationmessage has a property that a time required for tuning away the RF chainfrom the frequency indicated by the reconfiguration message to a secondfrequency used for said monitoring is smaller than a time required fortuning away the RF chain from the current frequency to the secondfrequency.
 10. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the operations alsoinclude: directing a transmission of one or more serving frequencies ofthe second wireless network associated with the second SIM, to the firstwireless network.
 11. A network node of a first wireless network, thenetwork node comprising a processing element configured to cause thenetwork node to: select a serving cell frequency of the first wirelessnetwork, for use by a user equipment device having at least a firstsubscriber identity module and a second subscriber identity module,wherein the serving cell frequency is for a data connection of the firstsubscriber identity module with the first wireless network, wherein theserving cell frequency is selected to be: within a same band as afrequency used by the second subscriber identity module for pagemonitoring of a second wireless network; and different from saidfrequency used by the second subscriber identity module for pagemonitoring of the second wireless network; and transmit areconfiguration message that includes the selected serving cellfrequency, wherein the reconfiguration message instructs the userequipment device to reconfigure the serving cell frequency for the dataconnection of the first subscriber identity module to the selectedserving cell frequency.
 12. The network node of claim 11, wherein theprocessing element is further configured to cause the network node to:prior to said selecting, receive the frequency used by the secondsubscriber identity module for said page monitoring, wherein saidtransmitting the reconfiguration message enables the user equipmentdevice to decrease a time required to retune to the frequency used bythe second subscriber identity module for said paging.
 13. The networknode of claim 12, wherein the frequency used by the second subscriberidentity module for said page monitoring is received from the userequipment device via a base station of the first wireless network. 14.The network node of claim 12, wherein the frequency used by the secondsubscriber identity module for said page monitoring is received from acore node in the second wireless network.
 15. The network node of claim11, wherein the processing element is further configured to cause thenetwork node to receive the frequency used by the second subscriberidentity module for paging monitoring of the second wireless networkfrom a base station of the first wireless network.
 16. The network nodeof claim 11, wherein said reconfiguration message instructs the userequipment device to tune its radio hardware to the selected serving cellfrequency for a connected-state data transfer of the first subscriberidentity module.
 17. The network node of claim 16, wherein saidtransmitting the reconfiguration message enables the user equipmentdevice to increase a re-tune efficiency for retuning the radio hardwarewhen switching between the connected-state data transfer of the firstsubscriber identity module and the page monitoring of the secondsubscriber identity module.
 18. The network node of claim 11, furthercomprising an interface configured to communicate with first and secondbase stations of the first wireless network, wherein the first basestation is configured to wirelessly communicate according to a Long TermEvolution standard, wherein the second base station is configured towireless communicate according to a 5G New Radio standard.
 19. Thenetwork node of claim 11, wherein the user equipment device is a DualReceive-Dual SIM Dual Standby, DR-DSDS, device.
 20. The network node ofclaim 11, wherein said selected serving cell frequency avoids a bandconflict between the first subscriber identity module and the secondsubscriber identity module.